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Copyright N°- 



C'OMMGRT UEPUSa v . 



WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 



By 

Rebecca Deming Moore 



Illustrated By 
Mabel Betsy Hill 



Edited By 

Helen Mildred Owen 




F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
DANSVILLE, NEW YORK 



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Copyright, 1923 
F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY 



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Contents 

Jane Addams 

The Girl Who Became a Neighbor to the 
Needy 15 

Louisa M. Alcott 

Whose Stories of Real Life Are a Delight 
to Girls and Boys 22 

Susan B. Anthony 

Who Worked for Sixty Years to Secure 
Rights for Women 30 

Clara Barton 

The Girl Who Unfurled the First Ameri- 
can Red Cross Flag 37 

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach 

The Girl Who Made Melodies 45 

Cecilia Beaux 

Whose Paint Brush Has Brought Her 
Fame 52 

Evangeline Booth 

The Girl Who Lived the Meaning of Her 
Name 58 



Frances Hodgson Burnett 

The Girl Who Loved Stories and Wrote 
Them 6( 

Katharine Bement Davis 

The Girl Who Has Helped to Straighten 
Twisted Lives 74 

Grace Hoadley Dodge 

The Girl Who Worked for Working Girls 82 

Alice Cunningham Fletcher 

The Girl Who Befriended the Red Man.. 90 
Louise Homer 

Who Believes that Hard Work Is the Se- 
cret of Her Success as a Singer. ... 97 

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer 

The Girl Who Loved Art More Than Ease 103 

Julia Ward Howe 

Whose Battle Hymn Sang Itself into the 
Hearts of a Nation Ill 

Helen Keller 

The Deaf and Blind Girl Who Found 
Light and Happiness Through Knowl- 
edge . . . % 118 

Maria Mitchell 

The Girl Who Studied the Stars 125 

Alice Freeman Palmer 

The Girl Who Guided College Girls 133 

Maud Powell 

The Girl Whose Violin Spread Afar the 
Message of Music 140 






Ellen H. Richards 

A Scientist Who Helped Home-Makers,.. 147 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

The Girl Who Helped to Draft Woman's 
Declaration of Independence 155 

Harriet Beecher Stowe 

The Girl Whose Story of Slavery Aroused 
The Whole World 163 

Kate Douglas Wiggin 

Who Put the Joy of Living into Her Books 170 

Frances E. Willard 

The Girl Who Fought the Dragon, Drink 178 

Ella Flagg Young 

Whose Slogan Was "Better Schools for 
Girls and Boys" 180 



Editor's Introduction 

When They Were Girls contains the sto- 
ries of a group of American women, each 
one of whom occupies a very important place 
in her particular field. The stories of these 
women have been written many times before. 
We feel, however, that in this book you pos- 
sibly may find that their stories have been 
written in a little different way. Our desire 
has been to bring very closely to the atten- 
tion of our many readers some of the out- 
standing characteristics in the girlhoods of 
these women, and to show the relationship 
between these qualities in girlhood and the 
achievements of adult life. 

To many people, doubtless to almost every- 
one, comes the desire to produce results, to 
achieve, and to add one's bit to the welfare 



of the world. Sometimes one is apt to be- 
come impatient, and to feel that he is not ar- 
riving at his goal. Under such circum- 
stances it is helpful for us to acquaint our- 
selves with the life story of someone whom 
we feel has reached the goal for which we are 
striving. We may then learn that success 
does not come overnight, but that years of 
careful, painstaking work are often spent be- 
fore the contribution that one has for the 
world is completed. 

It is so easy to admire someone who has at- 
tained success, and to wish for that same 
success and recognition oneself. Often, how- 
ever, we are not willing to pay the price that 
he or she paid. To very few people does suc- 
cess come easily. The small minority to 
whom it does seem to come in that way can 
only remain successful through careful, 
painstaking work. 

The women whose stories are within this 
book have not obtained the praise of the 
world easily. As girls, some of them were 
wealthy, some of them were very poor; but 



they all had obstacles to overcofne. Each 
one had her own way to make. No amount 
of money, nor an especially fine environment, 
could ever be the means of making anyone 
successful. Success comes not from without, 
but from within. 

It is, of course, desirable to have every op- 
portunity that will help to develop one's par- 
ticular ability. The greater a person's op- 
portunity to receive help from all available 
good sources, the better it is for him. How- 
ever, success depends upon oneself. No 
amount of encouragement, no effort put 
forth by loving parents, no amount of money 
expended for advantageous purposes, will 
ever accomplish great things unless the per- 
son himself really desires to achieve. 

No matter how small our part in the world 
may seem, it is possible for us each to do our 
work in such a way that it will prove to be a 
forerunner of greater things to come. We 
can take but one step at a time, and by tak- 
ing that step as best we know how we shall be 
led to something higher. In reading the 



stories in this book you will see at once that 
when these women were girls they had no 
idea of what they would ultimately achieve. 
Nevertheless, they each took the steps that 
seemed necessary to their progress, as each 
step presented itself. This careful prepara- 
tion, this conscientious work, has enabled 
these women to give to the world their best, 
and has made it possible for us to profit not 
only by their gifts but by their example, as 
well. 

Helen Mildred Owen. 

Rochester, New York, 
November 28, 1923. 



WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 




Jane Addams— 

The Girl Who Became a Neighbor 

To the Needy 



"w 



HY do people live in such horrid 
little houses so close together, 
Father?" asked seven-year-old 
Jane on a trip to the city. 

At home in the village, when she was tired 
of playing in the big roomy house, she could 
run across the green to the stream by her 
father's mill. Here, in the city, instead of 
wide green slopes and the low hum of the 
sawmill were narrow, dirty alleys and the 
clatter of carts and street cars. 



16 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

When Mr. Addams explained that some 
people do not have money enough to choose 
pleasant places for their homes, Jane declar- 
ed : "When I grow up, I shall have a large 
house, of course, but I shall not have it 
among other fine houses, but right in the 
midst of horrid little houses like these." 

Now, strangely enough, when she grew up, 
she did that very thing. She went to live in 
a big house situated in the midst of poor Chi- 
cago tenements. Later, this little girl, who 
was Jane Addams, became known all over 
the world as the friend of the poor. 

Jane Addams was born at Cedarville, Illi- 
nois, September 6, 1860. Little Jane could 
not remember her mother, who died when 
she was a baby, but she thought that no little 
girl ever had a father like hers. She was 
proud of his imposing figure, and she loved 
him dearly. Though he was a very busy 
man he always had time to answer her ques- 
tions. She had a great many to ask, too, for 
even as a small child she did a good deal of 
thinking. 



JANE ADDAMS 17 

Jane's father had been a state senator for 
sixteen years and could tell her interesting 
stories about the history of the country. He 
talked to her so often about Abraham Lin- 
coln, who had been his friend, that Jane felt 
almost as if she herself had known the great- 
hearted man. 

One Sunday Jane appeared before her 
father dressed for Sunday school in a beau- 
tiful new coat. It was a finer coat than any 
other little girl in the village had. For this 
reason, Mr. Addams suggested that Jane 
wear her old coat to save the feelings of the 
other little girls. Jane consented to do so, 
although she was very much disappointed. 

As they walked to Sunday school, Jane 
wondered how the good things of life could 
be more evenly divided. Ever since she had 
first seen the "horrid little houses" about a 
year before, her young mind had been busy 
with this problem. Jane turned to her fath- 
er and asked him how it could be solved. He 
explained that even though everything can- 
not be divided evenly, people should act and 



18 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

dress in such a way that those who are less 
fortunate will not be made to feel so. He 
told her that in school and church, at least, 
people should be able to feel that they belong 
to one family. 

Jane Addams attended the village school, 
and later, at seventeen years of age, entered 
Rockford Seminary, at Rockford, Illinois. 
Soon after she was graduated from this 
school it was declared a college, and she re- 
ceived the degree of B. A. 

She had intended after her graduation to 
study medicine and to help the poor, but she 
was urged to go abroad because she was in 
poor health. While in London and else- 
where, she was greatly distressed by the 
wretched condition of the poor. Now she 
was more determined than ever to go about 
the work of helping others. 

Miss Addams believed that it is better to 
show people how to help themselves than to 
give them gifts of money. "It is hard to help 
people one does not know," she reasoned, 
"and how can one really know people with- 



JANE ADDAMS 19 

out seeing them very often ?" True to the 
decision she had made as a child, she resolv- 
ed to live among the poor and be a real neigh- 
bor to them. 

With the help of some friends, Miss 
Addams opened Hull-House, which is locat- 
ed in a tenement section of Chicago. Here, 
she established a day nursery where mothers 
who had to go out to work could leave their 
babies in good care. A kindergarten was or- 
ganized for the young children in the neigh- 
borhood. 

There are clubs for girls and boys, and 
also for men and women. Classes in sewing, 
cooking, and millinery are conducted for the 
girls. "The Young Heroes," a boy's club, to- 
day has for its own use a five-story building 
equipped with recreation and study rooms. 
Printing, photography, and many other 
trades can be learned there. Hull-House, 
originally occupying one building, is now us- 
ing thirteen buildings, each fitted for some 
special service. 

For more than thirty years Miss Addams 



20 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

and her fellow-workers have stood ready to 
do any neighborly act, from bathing little 
babies to teaching and entertaining lonely 
old women. At Hull-House a cordial wel- 
come always awaits everyone. 

Besides her friendly aid to those who flock 
to Hull-House, Jane Addams has been a good 
neighbor to people whom she has never seen. 
She helped to have a law passed in Illinois to 
prevent children who are under fourteen 
years of age from working in factories* 
Through her efforts public baths have been 
provided in Chicago. Remembering the 
merry games she played as a child on the 
river banks near her home, she has made 
many a plea for more playgrounds for city 
girls and boys. 

Miss Addams has been a member, often 
the chairman, of many important committees 
that have been organized to plan ways for 
making the world a better place in which to 
live. She has also found time to write books 
on this subject. 

Jane Addams might have given money to 



JANE ADDAMS 21 

the poor and spent her time in travel and 
amusement, but she preferred to give her- 
self. Because she loves people enough to 
learn what they really need and works with 
them as well as for them, thousands bless her 
as a true friend and neighbor. 




Louisa M. Alcott— 

Whose Stories of Real Life Are 
A Delight to Girls and Boys 



WHEN Louisa Alcott peeped into her 
journal on the morning of her tenth 
birthday, she found a little note 
from her mother filled with loving messages. 
It read : "I give you the pencil-case I promis- 
ed, for I have observed that you are fond of 
writing, and wish to encourage the habits 

Louisa's mother often wrote little mes- 
sages in her daughter's journal, urging her 
to keep on trying to be good. Very often the 
notes encouraged Louisa to go on writing. 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 23 

On both her fourteenth and fifteenth birth- 
days her mother's gift was a pen, with a 
poem and a loving letter. 

As Louisa, at eight years of age, had writ- 
ten a little verse about a robin, Mrs. Alcott 
hoped that her daughter would some day be 
a great writer. It was a hope that was real- 
ized, for Louisa M. Alcott's books have be- 
come famous, delighting each succeeding 
generation. 

Little Women y her first great success,, is 
the story of the Alcott family. It tells of 
their jolly times and their hard times at the 
Orchard House at Concord, Massachusetts. 
The lively outspoken "Jo" of the story, writ- 
ing in the attic, is Louisa herself; the other 
"March" girls are her own dear sisters, 
Anna, Elizabeth, and Abba May. "Mar- 
mee," of course, is the beloved mother, and 
Mr. March, the father. 

Louisa May Alcott was born at German- 
town, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1832, but 
most of her girlhood was spent in Boston 
and Concord, Massachusetts. It was a happy 



24 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

life that she led even though the food was 
plain and her clothes were generally "made 
over." There was never enough money to go 
around in the Alcott family, but there was 
no lack of love, kindness, good conversation, 
and good reading. 

Louisa and her sisters received their edu- 
cation chiefly from their father, a man of 
rare intellect. Mr. Alcott was devoted to his 
children and he took great pleasure in teach- 
ing them. In addition to these daily lessons 
there often were long, hard tasks of sewing 
and ironing, but there was plenty of time for 
play, too. 

What fun they had ! In the old barn at 
Concord with their playmates, the children 
of Ralph Waldo Emerson and of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, they acted out their favorite 
fairy tales and also The Pilgrim's Progress. 
Their giant tumbled off the loft when Jack 
cut down the bean stalk, and there was a real 
pumpkin for Cinderella's coach. 

Their mother's birthday was always a 
great event. When that day arrived Louisa 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 25 

would say to herself as soon as she awoke, 
"It's Mother's birthday: I must be very 
good/' After breakfast the children always 
gave their mother her presents. One year 
Louisa's gift was a cross made of moss with 
a bit of poetry attached. That day there 
were no lessons, and everybody was very 
jolly and happy. 

Two great joys of Louisa's life were books 
and the outdoors. She enjoyed a quiet cor- 
ner with a good book. She also loved to run 
in the woods in the early morning before the 
dew was off the grass. She liked to feel the 
velvety moss under her feet and to look up 
into the green branches overhead. Once, 
when she was a child, she paused in her 
running and stood still listening to the rustle 
of the pines. 

"It seemed as if I felt God," she wrote in 
her journal, "and I prayed in my heart that 
I might keep that happy sense of nearness 
all my life." 

Louisa had a quick temper and found diffi- 
culty in managing it. At fourteen years of 



26 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

age she wrote a poem about her struggles en- 
titled, "My Little Kingdom." It began: 

"A little kingdom I possess, 

Where thoughts and feelings dwell. 
And very hard I find the task 

Of governing it well ; 
For passion tempts and troubles me, 

A wayward will misleads, 
And selfishness its shadow casts 

On all my words and deeds." 

She kept on trying, however, and never let 
her little kingdom control her. 

As Louisa Alcott grew older she began to 
realize very keenly all the cares that burden- 
ed the dear "Marmee" because of their lack 
of money. None of Mr. Alcott's ventures in 
teaching or lecturing had added much to the 
family treasury. 

Louisa was determined to help and she 
willingly did any kind of work that would en- 
able her to earn a little money for her dear 
ones. Sometimes she taught school, some- 
times she helped a relative with the house- 
work, and sometimes she took care of an in- 
valid child. Often she did fine needlework. 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 27 

While her hands were busy with her daily 
tasks, her brain was active planning stories. 
She wrote them late at night, and soon pub- 
lishers began to accept them and pay her 
small sums of money. For her first story, 
written when she was sixteen years old, she 
was paid five dollars. 

Writing was a joy to Louisa Alcott and 
sewing a tiresome task. However, she con- 
tinued her sewing because at first the needle 
paid better than the pen. It was a pleasure 
to her to earn enough money to buy a new 
shawl for "Marmee," a crimson ribbon for 
May's bonnet, or a new carpet for the whole 
family. Cheerfully she wore her old bonnet 
and her shabby shoes. 

During her spare moments, the young au- 
thor continued to write happily in her attic. 
To her delight the mail often brought her the 
news that her stories had been accepted. 
This greatly encouraged her. 

Then came the Civil War. Louisa realized 
that no matter how greatly she desired to 
write, her first duty was to her country. 



28 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Therefore, she went to the Union Hotel Hos- 
pital at Georgetown, D. C, as a nurse. The 
letters that she wrote home telling of her 
experiences were later published as a book 
called Hospital Sketches. 

By this time Miss Alcott's work had be- 
come so well known that she was asked to 
write a book for girls. She began to write 
Little Women to prove to the publisher 
that she could not write for girls. What she 
did prove everybody knows. Young people 
and their elders as well, not only in this coun- 
try but also abroad, were soon laughing and 
crying over the doings of the "March" girls. 
Miss Alcott had become famous. 

Little Men and other books followed rap- 
pidly and proved so popular that Miss Al- 
cott received many thousands of dollars 
from her writings. She was happy because 
now she could fulfill her dream of giving her 
dear mother some of the comforts that she 
had never had. It was but small return, she 
felt, for all the help and encouragement that 
her mother had given her. 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 29 

Miss Alcott's books have lived because they 
show people as they really are. They tell, 
too, how jolly and happy life can be if people 
think less about money and more about liv- 
ing unselfishly and enjoying the outdoors 
and the simple and beautiful things of life. 
Louisa M. Alcott could not help writing in 
this way, for it was the way in which she her- 
self lived. 




Susan B. Anthony — 

Who Worked for Sixty Years to Secure 

Rights for Women 



y 



OUNG Susan vigorously attacked, 
with her broom, the cobweb in the 
corner of the schoolroom ceiling. It 
was a stubborn cobweb and Susan had to 
step upon the teacher's desk to reach it. No 
girl trained by so good a housekeeper as 
Susan's mother could be happy in the same 
room with a cobweb. 

"Deborah will be pleased to have the room 
clean/' thought Susan. However, Deborah, 
her Quaker teacher, was not pleased. Su- 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY 31 

san's heavy shoes had broken the desk 
hinges, and the girl who had tried to do well 
was severely scolded. 

It was often very much like this in Susan 
B. Anthony's later life. When she tried her 
hardest to brush away the cobwebs that kept 
the world from seeing that women did not 
have the same rights as men, she was jeered 
and scorned. Nevertheless, she kept on 
wielding her broom, the broom she used be- 
ing her clever tongue. This little Quaker 
girl grew up to be an interesting and elo- 
quent lecturer, who never lost an opportun- 
ity to speak a good word for her fellow- 
women. 

Susan Brownell Anthony was born Feb- 
ruary 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, 
in the midst of the Berkshire Hills. She 
was the second of eight children. Every 
night, as a little girl, she used to watch the 
sun go down behind "Old Greylock." She 
came to love the great mountain, and all her 
life she liked to think of its rugged strength. 

Mrs. Anthony was a very busy woman. In 



32 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

addition to caring for her lively little chil- 
dren she also cooked and washed for a num- 
ber of factory hands. However, she found 
time to read good books and to be interested 
in all her children's doings. Susan's father 
was a Quaker, a man much liked and re- 
spected. 

At an early age little Susan learned to be 
a good cook and housekeeper, like her moth- 
er. Once, when Mrs. Anthony was ill, twelve- 
year-old Susan with the help of her two sis- 
ters, ten and fourteen years of age, did all 
the household tasks, including packing the 
lunch boxes for the factory hands. Susan 
was so anxious that everything should be 
done exactly right that she and her sisters 
carried samples of the food to their mother 
for her approval. 

At three years of age Susan, who was very 
bright and quick, learned her letters and also 
some words, while on a visit at her grand- 
mother's. When she was a little older she 
attended a district school, and then a private 
school conducted in the Anthony home. 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY 33 

Later, she joined her sister at a boarding 
school near Philadelphia, where she studied 
for a year. 

Susan began to teach in a district school 
when she was seventeen years old. She was 
boarded in turn at the homes of her pupils, 
being paid in addition only one dollar and a 
half a week. Susan was a very successful 
teacher, and often she grew indignant to see 
that men who did not do their work so well 
as she received four times as much pay. 
Equal pay for equal work was one of the 
rights that she began to demand for her fel- 
low-women from that time on. 

When Susan's father failed in business, 
she saw his creditors take all of her mother's 
personal things. Susan was enraged with 
the injustice of it and declared that there 
should be a law to make a wife's belongings 
her own. 

In 1851 Miss Anthony made a trip to 
Seneca Falls, New York, to urge the ad- 
mission of girls to the People's College then 
being founded. There she met Miss Lucy 



34 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Stone and had an opportunity to become well 
acquainted with her and also with Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Cady Stanton, whom she had met a few 
months before. 

Mrs. Stanton and Miss Stone believed that 
women should have a share in making the 
laws of the land, and Miss Anthony soon be- 
came their most ardent co-worker. Twenty- 
five years later, Miss Anthony drafted the 
federal suffrage amendment. However, it 
was forty-five years from the time that the 
amendment was drafted until it became a 
part of our Constitution. 

Susan B. Anthony was one of the greatest 
friends that women have ever had. When 
she was born there were only three things 
that a girl who wanted to earn her living 
could do: be a millhand, a servant, or a 
teacher. Before the close of Miss Anthony's 
life, a girl might fit herself to be a doctor, a 
lawyer, a business woman, or, in fact, almost 
anything that she chose. 

When Miss Anthony was a young girl, the 
doors of nearly all colleges were closed to 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY 35 

women. The girl who dared to ask for as 
much education as was given to her brother 
was considered a great oddity. However, 
Miss Anthony lived to see girls admitted to 
college quite as a matter of course. 

Susan B. Anthony found a world where a 
married woman could not do what she liked 
with the property that she owned. Neither 
could she do as she wished with the money 
that she had earned or received as a gift. 
She could not even take charge of her own 
children if anyone objected. Miss Anthony 
left a world where women's rights in all these 
matters were considered and where in four 
states women could help to make the laws. 
The Nineteenth Amendment, giving women 
the vote, came later. 

Miss, Anthony devoted all of her time to 
public speaking. She traveled from coast to 
coast, always making the most of every op- 
portunity to speak in behalf of the various 
reforms to which she devoted over sixty 
years of her life. Sometimes she pleaded for 
the freedom of the slaves, sometimes for 



36 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

temperance, but always for her favorite 
cause — rights for women. 

Susan B. Anthony kept on pleading for 
women, no matter how much people laughed 
at her. Gradually, the world began to see 
some reason in what she said. To-day, all 
women who cast their vote, control their 
property, and send their daughters to col- 
lege, can thank the determined Quaker girl 
who had such a large share in giving women 
their rights. 




Clara Barton — 

The Girl Who Unfurled 

The First American Red Cross Flag, 



THE Barton family was made very 
happy on the Christmas of 1821 with 
the gift of a baby girl. The four old- 
er sisters and brothers gave the baby a royal 
welcome, though they little thought that this 
gift was also to be a Christmas present to 
the whole world. This baby was Clara Bar- 
ton, called in Civil War times the "Angel of 
the Battlefield/' and known by all nations as 
the founder of the American Red Cross 
Society. 



38 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Baby Clara grew up to be the pet of the 
family, although no coddling was allowed on 
the Barton farm in Oxford, Massachusetts* 
Each member of the family wanted to teach 
her something, and Clara was equally eager 
to learn. 

Mrs. Barton taught her daughter to be 
level headed. Nothing could have been 
worth more to the girl who was to be the 
first woman to carry organized aid to the 
wounded on an American battlefield. Mrs. 
Barton also taught Clara to sew, to cook, and 
to be an excellent housekeeper. 

Clara was particularly grateful for this 
knowledge and had countless opportunities 
to use it. Once a dying soldier whispered his 
wish for a custard pie, crinkly around the 
edge, to remind him of home. With what 
materials she could get together, Miss Bar- 
ton made the pie and scalloped the edge with 
her finger, just as her mother had taught 
her to do in the farm kitchen. 

It was Big Brother David who taught the 
little sister many things that were to make 



CLARA BARTON 39 

her a very practical "Angel of the Battle- 
field." At five years of age, thanks to his 
training, she rode wild horses like a young 
Mexican. This skill in managing any horse 
meant the saving of countless lives when she 
had to gallop all night in a trooper's saddle 
to reach the wounded men. David taught 
her, also, to drive a nail straight, to tie a 
knot that would hold, and to think and act 
quickly. 

From her father Clara heard thrilling 
tales of his fighting in the Revolutionary 
War under "Mad Anthony" Wayne. These 
stories doubtless made a deep impression on 
the youthful listener. Little did she realize 
that in the years to come she, too, would play 
an important part on many battlefields. 

Clara Barton attended a boarding school 
for a short time. However, she received her 
education chiefly at home, being taught by 
her brother and then by a tutor. Later she 
had an opportunity for more advanced study 
at a near-by school. 

The little farm girl was busy and happy 



40 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

from morning until night, for she loved to 
do things. She went for the cows, helped 
with the milking and churning, and had a 
hand in planting the potatoes. When the 
house was being painted, she begged to help 
with that, too, and she learned how to mix 
the paint as well as to put it on. Once she 
went into her brother's factory and learned 
how to weave cloth. 

Her first experience as a nurse came at the 
age of eleven when Big Brother David was 
injured by a fall. For two years this cheer- 
ful, patient little nurse scarcely left his. bed- 
side. 

When she was only fifteen years old, Clara 
Barton began to teach school. She taught 
well, too, for she understood girls and boys. 
It seemed as if she had found the work that 
she best liked to do. However, after eight- 
een years of teaching, her health necessitat- 
ed her giving up this profession. Clara Bar- 
ton did not know how to be idle, so she went 
to Washington and secured a position in the 
Patent Office. 



CLARA BARTON 41 

When the Civil War broke out many 
wounded soldiers were brought to Washing- 
ton. Clara Barton helped to care for these 
boys, some of whom were her former pupils 
from Massachusetts. She also sent out ap- 
peals for money and supplies. 

As Miss Barton saw the wounded taken 
from the transports, she was extremely 
sorry for them because they did not have 
proper care. She felt that she must go to 
nurse the soldiers who were close to the bat- 
tlefields. This was entirely against army 
regulations, but Miss Barton was very per- 
sistent. She was finally allowed to take her 
store of bandages and other supplies to the 
front, where they werejmost needed. 

People used to ask Miss Barton if she had 
not always been brave. The woman who 
walked coolly through Fredericksburg when 
every street was a firing line answered, tell- 
ing of her childhood : "I was a shrinking lit- 
tle bundle of fears — fears of thunder, fears 
of strange faces, fears of my strange self." 
It was when the shy girl forgot herself in 



42 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

working for others that she forgot her fears. 

Bravery and willingness to help others, 
however, would have been of little use to 
Clara Barton had she not been level headed. 
The ability to see what should be done next 
and to do it quickly and well were of equal 
value. It seemed as if Clara Barton worked 
magic, but her magic was only a mixture of 
common sense and a great pity for the suf- 
fering. 

Once at Antietam, when there seemed to 
be nothing to feed to the wounded men, she 
noticed that the medicine had been packed 
in fine meal. Quickly she borrowed several 
big kettles from the farm where they were 
quartered, and she soon was serving the men 
with steaming gruel 

At another time, at nightfall, one of the 
doctors complained about the mismanage- 
ment that left him with a thousand wounded 
men to care for and only an inch of candle 
for a light. Miss Barton had fortunately 
brought along several boxes of lanterns, 
which she gave him. Her remarkable fore- 



CLARA BARTON 43 

thought meant the saving of many a life 
that night. 

After the Civil War Clara Barton did not 
give up her work of mercy. For four years 
she helped to trace missing soldiers. 

While in Europe, during the Franco- 
Prussian War, she saw the wonderful work 
that the Red Cross societies abroad were do- 
ing. She was deeply impressed with the 
value of such an organization and imme- 
diately decided that, upon her return to the 
United States, she would do all that she could 
to interest her country in the Red Cross. 

Miss Barton worked for years to persuade 
the United States to found an American Red 
Cross Society. "We shall never have anoth- 
er war," people objected. However, Miss 
Barton pointed out that in time of great 
floods, fires, earthquakes, and other disasters 
lives could be saved by organized aid. At 
last she was successful, for in 1882 the Amer- 
ican Red Cross Society came into being. 
Clara Barton* was its president for many 
years. 



44 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

The Red Cross banner was first unfurled 
for service in this country at Miss Barton's 
home at Dansville, New York, where she es- 
tablished a local chapter to aid the forest- 
fire sufferers in Michigan. Ever since that 
time the Red Cross has continued to give its 
efficient aid wherever needed. It had an ex- 
ceptional opportunity during the World War 
to prove its worth. Our country has cause 
for deep gratitude to Clara Barton. 

Clara Barton risked her life on sixteen 
battlefields of the Civil War to care for the 
wounded. She founded the organization 
that has brought relief to thousands of peo- 
ple in war and disaster. She did great deeds, 
but they were possible only because she had 
learned to do the little things of life well. 




Amy Marcy Cheney Beach — 
The Girl Who Made Melodies 



"v3 E 



JilE, the conquering hero comes" 
rang out in the studio, clear and 
true as a bell. The photographer 
thrust his head out from under the big black 
hood of the camera and stared in amazement 
at the tiny sitter. The two-year-old child 
was singing the very air that he had been 
practicing for the first peace jubilee, and she 
was singing it absolutely correctly. Others 
were eventually to be astonished at the musi- 
cal ability of this little girl, who grew up to 
be America's foremost woman composer. 



46 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Amy Marcy Cheney was born in the little 
town of Henniker, New Hampshire, Septem- 
ber 5, 1867. From the time that she was a 
year old, her talent amazed even her musical 
mother. She learned dozens of airs and sang 
them, keeping the pitch perfectly. She 
would listen delightedly for hours to violin 
music. 

At the age of four Amy was finally allow- 
ed to play on the piano. Often when her 
aunt was seated at the instrument, little Amy 
would stand on a hassock and play with her, 
making up an accompaniment as she went 
along. 

Just as other little girls plan how to ar- 
range their playhouses or how to make new 
dresses for their dolls, this little girl used to 
think out tunes. Once, when she was visit- 
ing at a house where there was no piano, she 
composed a little piece of music. She re- 
membered it and three months later was 
able to play it correctly on the piano at home. 
She had composed three other little pieces 
before she was seven years old. 



AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH 47 

Long before Amy knew the names of mus- 
ical notes, she knew their meaning and could 
read them. It amused her to transpose from 
one key to another, and she never found it 
difficult. 

When she was six years old Amy thought 
that she should have regular music lessons, 
so she begged her mother, who was an excel- 
lent pianist, to teach her. You may be sure 
that little Amy Cheney never had to be urged 
to practice. At seven years of age she play- 
ed several times in public. Before long she 
was playing difficult music from Chopin, 
Bach, and other composers. 

When Amy was eight years old her family 
moved to Boston. The prominent musicians 
of this city before whom she played agreed 
that she was ready to go to Europe to study 
music. However, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney did 
not want their little girl to be trained only 
in music. They knew that she would be hap- 
pier and healthier if she were to go to school 
with children of her own age. They also 
realized that she should have plenty of time 



48 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

to romp and play outdoors with other 
children. 

Amy was therefore sent to a private 
school, conducted by Mr. W. L. Whittemore, 
where she rapidly mastered the regular 
studies. She was greatly helped in her piano 
work by her good ear and accurate memory. 
She was able to play a whole Beethoven sona- 
ta without notes after she had heard one of 
her fellow-pupils practice it. 

While Amy was quite young her quick ear 
and good memory gave her an opportunity 
to be of real service to the world. Professor 
Sill, a scientist who made birds his special 
study, asked her to record the songs of the 
California larks. 

Out into the fields they went together and 
waited, motionless, for the birds to appear. 
Then just as soon as one of the little feath- 
ered creatures trilled out his melody, Amy 
wrote it down in notes. The song thus 
caught was kept for all time. She continued 
this practice of recording songs so that she 
finally had a volume filled with bird melodies. 



AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH 49 

Amy Cheney studied under Ernst Perabo, 
Carl Baerman, and Junius W. Hill. She also 
studied many musical subjects independent- 
ly. She did not always want to be helped 
over the problems that confronted her, pre- 
ferring to work them out alone. Translating 
books on music and memorizing and rewrit- 
ing difficult music were some of the hard 
tasks that this earnest, thorough young stud- 
ent set for herself. 

At sixteen years of age this young pianist 
made her first professional appearance be- 
fore the public at a recital in Boston, and 
was greatly praised. The next year she play- 
ed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and 
with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. Dur- 
ing that year a beautiful song which she had 
composed, entitled With Violets, was pub- 
lished. It was considered by musical critics 
to be faultless in form. 

The following year Amy Cheney became 
the wife of Dr. H. H. A. Beach, of Boston. 
She did not, however, give up her musical 
career. In fact, all of her most important 



50 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

pieces of music were written after her 
marriage. 

Mrs. Beach has composed music for the or- 
chestra, piano, and violin, and has also writ- 
ten cantatas and many songs. One of her 
most famous and successful pieces of music 
is her Jubilate cantata, written for the dedi- 
cation of the Woman's Building at the 
World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chi- 
cago in 1893. At this Exposition Maud 
Powell, the famous violinist, and Mrs. Beach 
played one of Mrs. Beach's compositions 
written for the violin and piano. 

The music for a poem called Dark Is the 
Night is thought by many people to be her 
best song. Other favorites are : Across the 
World, Scottish Cradle Song, and Fairy Lul- 
laby. Mrs. Beach's songs are always enjoyed 
by those who appreciate the best music. 

Success did not spoil the young girl whose 
marked musical ability had attracted atten- 
tion ever since her babyhood. Not content 
with what had come easily to her, Amy Mar- 
cy Cheney Beach kept on working to develop 



AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH 51 

her talent. Her love of music and enthusi- 
asm for it were not alone responsible for 
placing her foremost among the women com- 
posers of America. It was her desire for 
knowledge, leading her to studiously apply 
herself to her work, that enabled her to cre- 
ate music which has brought pleasure to 
thousands of people. 




Cecilia Beaux— 

Whose Paint Brush 

Has Brought Her Fame 

CECILIA'S gray eyes grew thoughtful 
as she considered the drawing that 
she was copying. She held it at arm's 
length, scrutinizing it critically. 

"Ah, this is much more fun than practic- 
ing scales," she reflected. 

When the family examined these draw- 
ings, they said, "Cecilia would never be a 
success at music, but she draws very well." 

This little girl was Cecilia Beaux, whose 
portraits have won many medals. She was 



CECILIA BEAUX 53 

born in Philadelphia in 1863. Her father 
came from Provence, France, where the peo- 
ple have ever been famed for their enjoy- 
ment of beauty. Her mother was of New 
England descent and had inherited from her 
ancestors the ability to do things and to do 
them conscientiously and well. 

From each parent the little girl received a 
golden gift : from her father, his joy in the 
beautiful; from her mother, the love of do- 
ing things. Her good use of these two gifts 
has made Cecilia Beaux a famous artist. 

Cecilia was taught at home until she was 
twelve years old. Then she attended a pri- 
vate school for a short time. Because of the 
skill that she had shown in copying drawings 
her aunt and uncle, with whom she spent a 
great deal of time, proposed a training in 
art for her. 

This young girl had a few lessons in draw- 
ing from a Philadelphia artist, Mrs. Thomas 
Janvier. She also had an opportunity to 
have her work in painting criticized by Mr. 
William Sartain. Her gray eyes shone with 



54 



WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 



happiness as she applied her colors and lis- 
tened eagerly to every word from this dis- 
tinguished teacher. Cecilia Beaux was prac- 
tically self-taught. These few lessons con- 
stituted her only instruction in art until she 
went abroad some years later. 

Instead of sitting and dreaming of the 
great pictures that she might paint some day, 
Cecilia Beaux looked for an opportunity 
to use her brush or pencil to aid her finan- 
cially. A scientific society needed some one 
upon whom they could depend to make ac- 
curate drawings of fossils. This kind of 
work necessitated very careful attention to 
detail. The drawings were to be made into 
plates to illustrate scientific books. They 
would have been useless if they had not been 
exactly correct. 

Some young artists, eager to do what they 
would call big things, would have been im- 
patient with such slow, tedious work. Ce- 
cilia Beaux did not despise it. She did it to 
the very best of her ability, just because she 
believed in doing things well. Little did she 



CECILIA BEAUX 55 

dream that this training in careful and exact 
drawing was to be of great help to her when 
she began to paint portraits. 

Another way in which she earned money 
was by giving lessons in painting and draw- 
ing. She also found that she could increase 
her income by painting portraits on china 
plates, taking her subjects from photo- 
graphs. She did these very well, too, being 
careful to make correct likenesses. 

Then Cecilia Beaux began to make crayon 
portraits from photographs. These attract- 
ed attention and she soon received many or- 
ders for portraits. 

One success followed another, but although 
Cecilia Beaux received much praise for her 
work, she was not content with what she had 
accomplished. She felt that she needed still 
more training and that to have it she must 
go to Paris. 

Accordingly, Miss Beaux went to Europe 
and began to broaden her talent by studying 
with several great French masters. One of 
them, Robert Fleury, used to summon her 



56 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

before the class to praise her work publicly. 
So modest was this American girl that she 
thought he could not be in earnest. Her fel- 
low-students, also, used to discuss her excel- 
lent work. 

The many friends that she made in Paris 
begged her to stay in that beautiful city and 
paint there, but she was too thoroughly 
American to spend her life in a foreign land. 
So, after a few years, she returned to her 
own country. 

A great many of Miss Beaux's best-known 
pictures are of women and children, but she 
has painted men with great success, too. In 
fact, she was chosen to paint portraits of 
Clemenceau, Admiral Beatty, and other 
great war leaders. Her portraits of women 
and children are really little pictures of 
everyday home life. She has caught the 
children as they have paused in their play 
for a moment. 

"Ernesta," one of Miss Beaux's well-known 
portraits, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art in New York City. Among her other 



CECILIA BEAUX 57 

important paintings are "The Last Days of 
Infancy," "The Dancing Lesson/' "Sita and 
Sarita," and "The New England Woman." 
Cecilia Beaux has won medals and prizes 
at many exhibitions of art. People are glad 
to pay large sums of money for her pictures, 
and it is considered an honor to be painted by 
her. She has steadily achieved success be- 
cause she has never scorned nor slighted 
small tasks. She has done them conscien- 
tiously and well, making them a preparation 
for greater things to come. 




Evangeline Booth — 
The Girl Who Lived 

The Meaning of Her Name 



MANY a passerby on the crowded Lon- 
don street paused to glance at the 
p earnest, thoughtful face of a slender, 

golden-haired flower girl and to buy a nose- 
gay from her basket. When her stock was 
sold this girl, as fair and fragile as one of 
her own flowers, picked her way through 
the throng. She presently disappeared into 
one of the dirty alleyways, where only the 
poorest of Londoners lived. 

Children ran to meet her and rough men 



EVANGELINE BOOTH 59 

touched their caps as she passed. The sick 
woman whose wretched ' room she entered 
fell asleep peacefully after receiving a bowl 
of soup from her hands and a cherry word. 

For weeks this sweet-faced young girl, 
who sold flowers or worked at making 
matches, had been winning the hearts of the 
poor, discouraged people of this district. 
She tended their babies and prayed with the 
lonely old women. These people felt that 
they had found a friend who was sorry for 
them and who was always ready to give 
them aid. They called her the "White 
Angel." 

One day she told these people that she was 
a Salvation Army lassie. The Army was 
hated in this district because it was trying 
to close the saloons ; only a few months ear- 
lier its preachers had been stoned in the 
streets. The "White Angel," herself, had 
been warned by the police that it would be 
dangerous for her to speak in this part of 
London. Yet so beloved and respected had 
she become that she felt perfectly safe. Be- 



60 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

cause of her good work, the people in this 
poverty-stricken and wicked district were 
soon attending the meetings of the Army. 

The girl who dared to go into the very 
worst part of London to live the life of its 
poor people that she might better know how 
to help them was Evangeline Booth. In later 
years she became the Commander-in-chief 
of the Salvation Army in the United States. 

Evangeline Booth's f ather, William Booth, 
had been apprenticed as a boy to a pawn- 
broker. He was so touched by the poverty 
and wickedness around him that he put his 
whole soul into helping others to lead better 
lives. The Mission, that he established in 
London after many struggles, became in 
time the Salvation Army. For years, William 
Booth, General of the Army, toiled against 
odds of every kind. 

The thinking world now has respect and 
admiration for the splendid work that the 
Salvation Army carries on. In those days, 
however, the street preachers of the Army 
were as likely to be showered with stones 



EVANGELINE BOOTH 61 

and bricks as to be sneered and ridiculed. 
The rougher people disliked the Army be- 
cause it was fighting drink and wickedness. 
Other people could not see that the drum and 
tambourine and simple prayers might help 
to turn a man's heart to God as readily as 
could organ music and learned sermons. 

It was into the home of the founder of this 
once despised organization, at Hackney, a 
suburb of London, that a seventh child, 
Evangeline Booth, was born, December 25, 
1865. There was a loving welcome for the 
little girl, though she had come into a home 
where both mother and father believed that 
their family must be second to the work that 
they were doing for the world. 

Little Evangeline and her sisters heard 
so much of their fathers work that even 
their favorite game was playing prayer 
meeting with their battered dolls. She and 
the others had very few toys, because their 
parents thought that the money should be 
spent for the poor. 

It w r as a very busy home in which Eva, as 



62 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

her father preferred to call her, grew up. 
The bell was always ringing. Messengers 
were coming and going. In one room her 
father's deep voice might be heard planning 
his work. In another room her mother was 
busy writing for the Cause. The younger 
children murmured their lessons in a third 
room, and in a fourth, one of the older girls 
practiced on the piano. 

The General would often stop in the midst 
of his work for little chats with his children. 
He would take Eva, for whom he always had 
a specially deep love and tenderness, upon 
his knee and ask her about her puppies or 
kittens. Once when Eva felt very sad over 
the death of her pet dog, her father took her 
to the city and spent the whole day telling 
her stories and comforting her. 

At an early age Eva learned that she 
should pick up her books and toys for, above 
everything else except sin, her father hated 
disorder. Orderliness was a useful habit to 
be acquired by one who was later to have 
charge of the affairs of a great organization. 



EVANGELINE BOOTH 63 

Though Eva's mother was often too busy 
to spend much time with her, she heard her 
daughter's prayers and urged her to study 
so that she could help the weak, the poor, the 
ignorant, and the wicked. Mrs. Booth often 
reminded Eva to carry out in her life the 
meaning of her beautiful name, Evangeline, 
"bringing glad tidings." 

Evangeline Booth began her work of 
"bringing glad tidings" when she was very 
young. She had inherited her father's gift 
of eloquence as well as his fearlessness and 
love of work. At fifteen years of age she 
spoke very beautifully at a meeting near 
London. When she was seventeen years old 
she was made an officer in the Army and be- 
gan the work in the slums which won her the 
title of "White Angel." 

After ably filling various positions in the 
Salvation Army in Great Britain, Evange- 
line Booth was made Commander of the 
Army in Canada. At the time of the Gold 
Rush in 1898, she sent Salvation Army work- 
ers to the Klondike. In 1904 she was made 



64 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Commander-in-chief of the Salvation Army 
in the United States. Besides her duties as 
Commander she has composed words and 
music for the Army's songs and has written 
articles for the Army publications and other 
magazines. 

In addition to its religious work the Salva- 
tion Army maintains homes, hospitals, clin- 
ics, and day nurseries; it finds employment 
for men and women out of work; and it 
sends mothers and children on summer out- 
ings. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving 
pennies dropped into the big red Salvation 
Army kettles provide dinners for thousands 
of the poor. In a single year the Army in 
the United States made 175,698 children 
happy with Christmas toys. 

During the World War the pies and dough- 
nuts served by the Salvation Army lassies 
cheered thousands of lonely soldiers, and 
many a mother has the Salvation Army to 
thank for her boy's last message. 

Evangeline Booth was for almost twenty 
years Commander-in-chief of this great or- 



EVANGELINE BOOTH 65 

ganization in the United States. She be- 
lieves, as her father did before her, that the 
first step in influencing a man to lead a bet- 
ter life is to make him feel that you really 
care whether he sinks or swims. Her cour- 
ageous, selfless life shows that she does care. 




Frances Hodgson Burnett- 
The Girl Who Loved Stories 
And Wrote Them 



FROM under the sitting-room table 
came strange whispers, but Mrs. 
Hodgson was not at all surprised. 
Beneath the long overhanging cover she 
could see a chubby, curly-headed little girl 
seated on the floor talking in low earnest 
tones to her wax doll, braced against the 
table leg. 

Frances, the little girl under the table, 
would have described the scene very differ- 
ently. What she saw was not an ordinary 



FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT 67 

center table, but an Indian wigwam; not a 
speechless doll, but a squaw to whom she, as 
the chief, was telling tales of the war-trail 
and the happy hunting grounds. 

"Frances is pretending again," said Mrs. 
Hodgson to herself as she went out of the 
room, a bit puzzled at this little daughter's 
way of playing. 

The chubby little girl and her doll had 
many an adventure together. They took 
mad gallops on coal-black steeds that seemed 
to ordinary eyes nothing but the arms of the 
nursery sofa. As survivors from a sinking 
ship they drifted on a raft that Frances' two 
sisters would have called the green arm 
chair. These experiences seemed very real 
to this little girl. 

Something within little Frances' curly 
head helped her to transform the sitting- 
room cupboard into a temple in Central 
America and the stiff doll into Mary Queen 
of Scots. It was the gift of imagination. 
How surprised her family would have been 
at that time had they known that this gift 



68 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

was one day to make her a famous story- 
writer. 

In the smoky factory town of Manchester, 
England, Frances Eliza Hodgson was born, 
November 24, 1849. When she was about 
four years old, her sweet, gentle mother was 
left a widow. 

Like other English children of families in 
comfortable circumstances, the Hodgson 
girls had a governess at home, before they 
entered a near-by private school. The les- 
sons which interested Frances the most were 
those that contained stories, such as certain 
parts of history. She could never satisfy 
her great appetite for stories, though she 
read continually. 

There were not so many good books for 
children then as nowadays. Frances' rela- 
tives seemed to think that the birthday and 
Christmas gift books were quite enough for 
a little girl. Frances, however, did not agree 
with them. When she made a new acquain- 
tance at school, she was sure to ask her, first 
of all, what books she had to lend. Some- 



FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT 69 

times when she went to visit a little friend, 
she forgot her manners entirely and buried 
herself in a new book, so eager was she to 
read. 

One gloomy rainy day, Frances wandered 
through the house looking for something to 
read. She glanced at the tall secretary and 
wished that its books looked more interest- 
ing. However, she decided that she might at 
least try one. Accordingly, she pulled out 
a fat volume. It had short lines, which, to 
Frances, meant conversation and a story. 
She opened another book and found more 
stories. Delightedly, she continued to ex- 
amine the books. 

Frances was so excited and happy that she 
forgot to go to tea. She had discovered that 
there were stories enough to last her for 
months! It was in this way that Frances 
Hodgson discovered Shakespeare's plays, 
Scott's and Dickens' novels, and many other 
interesting books. 

Not content with reading stories, Frances 
was always telling or writing them. On the 



70 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

afternoons at school when the girls were al- 
lowed to talk quietly over their crocheting 
and fancy work, Frances would tell stories 
in low tones to the group of girls near her. 
They were delighted with her tales and con- 
tinually begged her to tell more. 

At home she often wrote stories on slates 
or in old account books. For fear of being 
teased she rarely showed the stories to any- 
one except her mother. Mrs. Hodgson al- 
ways had an encouraging word for her little 
daughter's tales and verses. This gave Fran- 
ces an added incentive to continue writing. 

Just at the close of the Civil War a great 
change came into the life of the little story- 
writer. Mrs. Hodgson decided to leave Eng- 
land and move to America. The family for- 
tunes were impaired, and an uncle had 
promised to find work for the boys in the 
United States. 

Romantic Frances was delighted with the 
change. Her first American home was in a 
tiny settlement in the forests of Tennessee. 
Everything was so new and strange that she 



FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT 71 

seemed actually to be living in a story. The 
next home on the top of a hill, with moun- 
tains in the distance, was even better. How 
she loved the bright sunshine, the flowers, 
the birds, and her bower, a cozy retreat in 
the woods ! 

The boys had not as yet been able to add 
very much to the family fortunes. Frances 
and her sisters did not mind worn-out frocks 
and scanty meals, but they were troubled to 
see their dear little mother so worried. The 
girls decided that something had to be done 
immediately. 

"How wonderful it would be/' thought 
Frances, "if an editor would buy one of my 
stories !" 

She was only fifteen years old, and she did 
not know how to send a story to an editor. 
She had read in a magazine that contribu- 
tors must write very clearly on foolscap pa- 
per, and enclose stamps. 

Not having sufficient money with which to 
buy stamps and paper, Frances and her sis- 
ters earned the money by selling wild grapes. 



72 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

At last the story was sent, but it was done 
secretly, for Frances was afraid that her 
brothers would tease her. What a happy 
day it was when, on its second trip, the story, 
together with another, brought a check for 
thirty-five dollars ! She had found a way to 
help. 

Frances Hodgson went on writing and 
selling her stories. Soon her books became 
famous. When she married Dr. S. M. Bur- 
nett, she was able to help him complete his 
education by her writing. Their son, Vivian, 
is also a writer. He has been a journalist 
and is the author of several books. 

Mrs. Burnett has written many novels for 
grown people as well as stories that children 
love. Little Lord Fauntleroy, the tale of a 
lovable little American boy who won the 
heart of his crusty old English grandfather, 
is the best known of her books for children. 
Among her other well-known books are 
Editha's Burglar, Sara Crewe, The Cozy 
Lion, The Secret Garden, and Land of the 
Blue Flower. 



FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT 73 

Mrs. Burnett does not preach in her de- 
lightful stories for children. One can, how- 
ever, easily see in her stories the lessons in 
thoughtfulness and courtesy she had learned 
from her mother. Frances Hodgson Bur- 
nett's great gift of imagination, together 
with her desire to write, enabled her to give 
us stories that have brought pleasure to 
many people. 




Katharine Bement Davis — 

The Girl Who Has Helped 

To Straighten Twisted Lives 



THE villain had received his just de- 
serts, but he, or rather she, was smil- 
ing with satisfaction. Her play, for 
Katharine was the author as well as a prin- 
cipal actor, had been a great success. No- 
body had forgotten a line, and, in addition, 
the scenery had added a realistic setting. 
Who would ever have dreamed that the deep 
forest and bold cliffs were only boughs cut 
from the shrubbery, and boxes covered with 
mother's old gray shawl? 



KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS 75 

The back parlor of the Davis home was 
crowded with a friendly audience of girls 
and boys and a few mothers and fathers. 
This attendance was very gratifying to 
Katharine, for it assured her that the re- 
ceipts would be large. With them she in- 
tended to provide a bountiful Thanksgiving 
dinner for a good woman who was having 
difficulty in supporting her crippled grand- 
son. 

Little did this merry eleven-year-old girl 
think that the work of helping others, begun 
in such a small way that night, was the 
work that she was to choose for her own 
later on. When she grew up she became a 
sociologist. This is simply a long word for a 
person who thinks, studies, plans, and works 
to help people lead happier, healthier, and 
better lives. 

Katharine Bement Davis was born in 
Buffalo, New York, January 15, 1860. With- 
in a short time the family moved to Dunkirk, 
New York. In the happy childhood days 
spent in this town on Lake Erie, there was 



76 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

no hint of the sorrow of life which Katha- 
rine was to cheer in later years. 

Besides four younger sisters and brothers 
for playmates, Kitty, as khe was called, had 
no end of school chums. They were always 
welcome at her home, for the Davis house 
was a sort of center of good times for the 
neighborhood. In the winter the children 
acted plays in the house ; in the summer time 
they played Indian in the backyard, or built 
houses of kindling wood. 

Kitty was usually chief builder, because 
she loved to watch something grow under 
her hands. Making things was always such 
a joy to her that years later, when she had 
charge of the Bedford Reformatory, she 
taught her girls how to do all sorts of useful 
tasks. They even laid the concrete walks be- 
tween the buildings. 

This little Lake Erie girl had as great an 
appetite for finding out how other people 
did things as for doing them herself. Once 
when a friend of the family took her for a 
drive, she inquired the name and use of 



KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS 77 

every part of the carriage. By the time they 
reached home, her companion felt as if he 
had been put through a severe examination ; 
but Katharine knew all about the carriage. 
This habit of going to the very bottom of 
things was to be of great use to a woman 
who was to have hard problems to settle in 
her public life. 

Kitty Davis was very fond of reading. 
Her sisters and brothers often found her 
deeply absorbed in a book. Some of Scott's 
and Dickens' novels were among the book 
friends that she made at eleven and twelve 
years of age. 

Little- Katharine Davis liked to create 
with her mind as well as with her hands. 
When she was eleven years old, she had 
thought out tunes for a number of hymns. 
She enjoyed her music lessons, especially the 
part which showed her how music is made. \ 
The grown-up Katharine Davis realized that 
music helps people to forget their troubles 
and to think better thoughts. For this rea- 
son, she made sure that her girls at the re- 



78 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

f ormatory should not only hear good music 
but should sing it themselves in their own 
glee club. 

In the Davis family lived Grandmother 
Bement, a woman who had always had a 
hand in any new movement to make the 
world better. Katharine and the other chil- 
dren loved to hear her tell about the escape 
of slaves by means of the underground rail- 
road, the fight against drink, and the strug- 
gle for rights for women. It was not 
strange that the granddaughter of such a 
woman should have a desire to be of service 
to the world. 

The years flew on until Katharine Davis 
was ready for college. Business reverses 
Jiad come to Mr. Davis, and he told his 
daughter that he could not pay her expenses. 

"Never mind," answered Katharine, "I 
will earn them myself." 

She kept her word. Studying by herself 
while she was teaching science in the Dun- 
kirk High School, Katharine Davis complet- 
ed two years of college work. She then en- 



KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS 79 

tered Vassar College as a junior. She suc- 
cessfully passed the many special examina- 
tions that it was necessary for her to take. 
Upon the completion of two years' work at 
college Katharine Davis was graduated with 
honors. 

For a number of years, Miss Davis spent 
her time, first, in teaching; then, in settle- 
ment work; and later, in further study. 
After three years of graduate work, the de- 
gree of Doctor of Philosophy, with honors, 
was conferred upon her by the University 
of Chicago. Thus she was ably prepared 
to enter the field of social service. 

When it was announced that a new re- 
formatory for women was to be opened at 
Bedford, New York, Dr. Davis was imme- 
diately interested. She thought that there 
she might be able to carry out her ideas for 
helping girls who had not had a pleasant 
home and wise parents like her own. 

Dr. Davis received the appointment as su- 
perintendent of this reformatory, and set 
about getting acquainted with her girls. She 



80 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

believed that many of these lives that had 
been started in the wrong way might turn 
out happily, if some one took the trouble to 
study them. 

Dr. Davis endeavored really to know the 
girls at Bedford. She was vitally interested 
in their welfare and did everything that she 
could to help them. She spent many success- 
ful years as superintendent of this reforma- 
tory. 

Dr. Davis' ability to grasp a situation and 
meet it was clearly demonstrated at the time 
of the Messina earthquake. She was in 
Sicily when the disaster occurred, and im- 
mediately set about to aid the sufferers. Her 
work of rehabilitating the earthquake vic- 
tims was so important that it won for her a 
Red Cross Medal, presented by President 
Taft. 

When Dr. Davis took charge of all the 
prisons in the city of New York, as Commis- 
sioner of Correction, she had another oppor- 
tunity for continuing her wonderful work. 
Katharine Bement Davis has served on a 



KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS 81 

number of commissions formed for the pur- 
pose of social betterment. Many persons 
who desire to learn the best ways of working 
for humanity go to her for advice. Because 
of the little girl who carried into later life 
her joy of working and her habit of investi- 
gating things, many twisted lives have been 
straightened. 




Grace Hoadley Dodge 
The Girl Who Worked 
For Working Girls 



A GROUP of prominent men and wom- 
en were sitting in the drawing room 
of a beautiful home in New York 
City, talking earnestly. Close by them sat a 
young girl, the eldest daughter of the house. 
She shyly added only an occasional word to 
the conversation, but she gave very careful 
attention to everything that her elders said. 
One member of this group was Dwight L. 
Moody, the famous preacher. The girl lis- 
tened to him with particular interest, and 



GRACE HOADLEY DODGE 83 

was deeply impressed by all he had to say. 

There were often such gatherings in this 
home. No matter with what subject the 
conversation started, sooner or later came 
the question of how to help men and women 
lead the best kind of lives. It was not 
strange, then, that one day this young girl 
went to her mother and said, "I have found 
out what there is for me to do. I am going 
to help people." 

That is exactly what Grace Dodge did. 
She helped people. Perhaps you will be sur- 
prised to learn that she helped each one of 
you girls and boys. 

Every girl who has learned in a cooking 
class how to bake a wholesome loaf of bread ; 
every boy who brings home from school a 
well-finished footstool for his mother, has 
Grace Dodge to thank. Every one of your 
older sisters who enjoys a swim or a game of 
basketball at the Y. W. C. A. has her to thank 
too. Of course, there are others to thank 
as well, for every good work needs many 
helpers. 



84 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

When Grace Dodge was young, girls and 
boys in the public schools were not taught 
how to work with their hands ; and girls who 
were earning their own living had no pleas- 
ant clubs. Grace Dodge believed strongly in 
these things, and worked so earnestly all her 
life for them that other people became inter- 
ested too, and gladly cooperated with her in 
her beloved work. 

Grace Hoadley Dodge was born in New 
York City, May 21, 1855. The Dodge family 
divided their time between their city home 
and their beautiful country house at River- 
dale on the banks of the Hudson. Here 
Grace had many a fine gallop through the 
country with her brothers. Aside from these 
lively rides, which she greatly enjoyed, she 
lived quietly. 

Even as a child, Grace thought very little 
about her own pleasure or herself. She liked 
to talk with the workmen who kept the 
beautiful lawns and gardens in order, and to 
make friends with their children. Although 
there were nurses and governesses in the 



GRACE HOADLEY DODGE 85 

family, the younger sisters and brothers al- 
ways preferred to go to sister Grace when 
they wanted to be comforted; and they did 
not go in vain. 

When Grace went shopping in the city 
with her mother, she used to think that it 
was very hard for girls to have to stand be- 
hind the counter all day. "I am ashamed to 
have so much while these girls have so lit- 
tle," she would many times say to herself, 
wondering what she could do about it. 

Grace Dodge attended a private school at 
Farmington, Connecticut. After her school 
days were over, she began to do the work 
that had always interested her. One of the 
reasons that she accomplished so much was 
that, whenever she saw a need for anything, 
she set about to fill it. Furthermore, she 
kept persistently at the work until it was 
done. 

Miss Dodge soon discovered that many of 
the girls in whom she was interested had to 
work long hours in factories. She began to 
find that they did not know much about 



86 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

cooking, or sewing, or taking proper care of 
their health. It was a great pity, she 
thought, that these girls, many of whom 
would soon be having homes of their own, 
should know so little about the important 
work of home-making. 

Miss Dodge began to gather a group of 
these girls about her every week, and talked 
to them. She told them in a friendly, simple 
way how to choose their clothes, how to keep 
well and strong, and how to use their money 
wisely. She told them, too, how to live the 
right kind of lives and of the help that God 
would give them. Often she talked to them 
about the homes that they might make some 
day. 

The girls were eager to tell her about 
themselves. Each one felt that she could 
consider Miss Dodge as her personal friend. 
"The Irene Club/' as this group was named 
after a beloved member, grew until it had 
to be divided. Still the girls continued to 
come. In this way clubs for working girls 
were started. These clubs have proved to be 



GRACE HOADLEY DODGE 87 

so successful that they have never stopped 
growing. 

At that time, there were no places where 
girls who were busy all day could learn 
home-making. Miss Dodge, therefore, to- 
gether with several other young women, or- 
ganized classes for these girls in various 
household subjects. Miss Dodge and her as- 
sociates soon discovered that there were 
very few teachers who had been trained to 
teach in this particular field. They later 
found that there was a lack of highly trained 
teachers in practically all of the departments 
of teaching. 

Miss Dodge began to think that there 
should be a school to train teachers in the 
various branches of learning. It was not 
Grace Dodge's way to stop merely with 
thinking. She began to work for this school, 
and, largely because of her efforts, Teachers 
College of Columbia University rose on 
Morningside Heights in New York City. 

Every year this college sends out thous- 
ands of men and women prepared to teach 



88 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

all the school subjects. The wonderful work 
that Teachers College is accomplishing is 
due, in a large measure, to the inspiration 
and guidance that Grace Dodge gave to the 
college throughout her life. 

In many other ways Grace Dodge carried 
on her work of helpfulness. She was the 
first woman to serve on the Board of Educa- 
tion of New York City. Because of her pity 
for women and children who were unpro- 
tected and bewildered in travel, she organ- 
ized the Travelers' Aid Society. So firm was 
her belief in what the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association does for girls that she 
worked to make it a strong organization. 
She was the president of its national board 
for eight years. 

Miss Dodge often called herself "a work- 
ing girl whose wages were paid in advance." 
Her money meant to her merely a means for 
doing good. 

Grace Hoadley Dodge was unselfish and 
determined to fill the need that she saw. 
Through her efforts, school girls and boys 



GRACE HOADLEY DODGE 89 

now have many opportunities to use hand 
and brain together. It was because of her 
great interest in others that she brought joy 
into the life of many a wage-earning girl 
and helped to fit her for her work of home- 
making. 




Alice Cunningham Fletcher — 
The Girl Who Befriended 

The Red Man 



ONCE upon a time there lived a little 
girl named Alice, who loved to sit 
upon the shore and listen to the song 
of the waves. She also liked to climb a high 
hill and look far off at the blue sky and the 
green slopes. 

At home she had plenty of good books to 
read, and she loved them too. They told her 
delightful stories about things that had hap- 
pened long ago. Sometimes she did not 
quite understand all that they said, as she 



ALICE CUNNINGHAM FLETCHER 91 

read them curled up by the fire, but later, 
when she wandered in the woods, their 
meaning became clearer. 

It was the same way when she played on 
the piano at home. The music set her to 
dreaming, and called forth puzzling 
thoughts. Outdoors she seemed to under- 
stand better what the music had to tell her. 

This little girl was Alice Cunningham 
Fletcher. She was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1845. As she grew older, the 
thought came to her that if she felt so happy 
out in the open, how must the Indians feel 
who had lived a free out-of-door life for gen- 
erations. 

Gradually she began to think that these 
people, whom the world called savages, must 
have learned something about how to live 
happily. Alice Fletcher resolved that, if 
ever there came a time when it was possible, 
she would go to the home of the Indians and 
try to discover their secrets. 

Meanwhile she studied all that books and 
museums could teach her of the story of the 



92 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Red Men. At last, there did come a day 
when she decided to go and live among them. 
It meant leaving behind her, beloved libra- 
ries, fine concerts, beautiful pictures, and 
even a comfortable bed and easy chair. Miss 
Fletcher felt, however, that there was some- 
thing that meant more than comfort to her. 
It was the doing of a definite piece of work 
that she believed would be useful to the 
world. 

Therefore, she left the friends with whom 
she could talk of books, pictures, and music, 
and went to live among the Dakota and 
Omaha Indians. From the door of her rude 
wigwam of buffalo skins, she could watch 
the little Indian children at play and see the 
everyday life of the older members of the 
tribe. 

Most people think of the American In- 
dian as a reserved, stern sort of person who 
never laughs or jokes. What Miss Fletcher 
saw from her wigwam gave her an entirely 
different opinion. She saw the Indians en- 
joy fun, and take a wide-awake interest in 



ALICE CUNNINGHAM FLETCHER 93 

everything that went on around them. She 
decided that the sternness of the Indian was 
only a kind of mask that he wore before 
strangers. 

Soon the New England woman ceased to 
be a stranger to her Indian neighbors. The 
love that they both had for the sky, the 
wind, the streams, and the forest helped to 
make them understand one another. It was 
not long before these children of Nature 
realized that Miss Fletcher had come to 
them as a friend ; and that she was really in- 
terested in them. So they dropped their 
mask of reserve and let her know them as 
they really were. 

Miss Fletcher, always a lover of music, be- 
came greatly interested in the music of the 
Indians. She found, however, that it was 
very difficult to study. An Indian does not 
sing just to be heard, but to express some 
feeling. His singing is a kind of prayer. It 
was only stray bits of such music that she 
was able to overhear and write down. 

Then Miss Fletcher had a severe illness 



94 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

which turned out to be a blessing, in one re- 
spect. When her Indian friends discovered 
that she really wanted to hear their music, 
they gathered about her bed and sang for 
her. To please her, they even were willing 
to sing into a phonograph, which was to 
them a strange machine. Thus their songs 
were preserved for all time. Miss Fletcher 
has written a book entitled Indian Story and 
Song from North America. This book has 
already suggested themes for a number of 
American musical compositions. 

Presently a chance to prove that she was 
really a friend of the Indians came to Alice 
Fletcher. Some greedy white men were try- 
ing to get the good land away from the Red 
Men, giving them poorer land in return. 
Sometimes the Indians were so enraged with 
their treatment that they would rise in re- 
volt. The situation kept growing worse and 
worse. Miss Fletcher realized that it would 
be no better unless each Indian secured from 
the government the right to hold a portion 
of the tribal land for himself. 



ALICE CUNNINGHAM FLETCHER 95 

She set out for Washington to 'try to per- 
suade Congress that the Indians must hold 
their land just as the white man holds his. A 
book which had just appeared, written by 
Helen Hunt Jackson, called A Century of 
Dishonor, helped a little to make people real- 
ize the wrongs done to the Indians. How- 
ever, the congressmen were much more in- 
terested in the affairs of their own people 
than in the Indians. Miss Fletcher, there- 
fore, had to plead their cause continually un- 
til the Indian Land Act was finally passed. 

The President asked Miss Fletcher to un- 
dertake the difficult task of allotting the 
tracts of land to the Omaha Indians. He 
knew that they trusted her and would be 
content with her judgment. Later she did 
the same work for other tribes of Indians, 
to the satisfaction of everybody. 

The Girl and Boy Scouts and the Campfire 
Girls have interested Miss Fletcher very 
much, because she believes that the outdoors 
can bring health and happiness to girls and 
boys. She has made a collection of Indian 



96 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

games for these organizations. Also, Miss 
Fletcher has written books and articles 
about the Indians. Her writings are a great 
help to those who are making a special study 
of the different people of the world. 

Alice Cunningham Fletcher gave up lux- 
ury and even comfort to learn about the In- 
dians. The work of her mind has been of 
great value to learned people in their study 
of races; and the work of her heart will 
never be forgotten by the simple folk whose 
wrongs she helped to right. 




Louise Homer — 

Who Believes That Hard Work Is 

The Secret of Her Success as a Singer 




OUISE paid no attention to the calls of 
the children. What were a few hours' 
*, lost play compared w T ith the treat in 
store for her ! To-night after the regular 
prayer meeting, a song service was to be 
held to study hymns. Louise had begged so 
hard to be allowed to attend that her father 
had consented, provided that her lessons 
were thoroughly prepared in the afternoon. 
These midweek song services were held 
at the Minneapolis church of which her f ath- 



98 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

er was pastor. There, Louise Beatty sang: 
for the first time outside her own home. 
Little did this girl realize that her rich, deep 
voice would later make her famous through- 
out the world. 

Louise Dilworth Beatty was born in Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania, in 1872, into a family 
where playing and singing were as much a 
part of the daily program as eating or sleep- 
ing. Every one of the eight Beatty children 
loved music. They were always singing in 
duets, trios, quartets, or choruses. 

Gathered around the fire on winter even- 
ings, the family formed an impromptu or- 
chestra. One sister played the piano ; a 
brother, the bones; Mr. Beatty, the flute;; 
and Louise, the future great opera singer, 
the triangle. 

Music had always delighted Louise, in 
particular. At school, the seven-year-old 
girl was stirred day after day by the thrill- 
ing notes of the music which the teacher 
played as the pupils marched out for recess. 

When Louise was fourteen years old, she 



LOUISE HOMER 99 

made her first appearance in public as a solo- 
ist. The church in the little Pennsylvania 
town where the family was then living was 
to give the cantata, Ruth and Naomi. Mrs. 
Beatty was rather amused when Louise was 
asked to take the part of Ruth, for she had 
never sung alone ; but Louise herself was de- 
lighted. The rehearsals were a joy. 

On the night set for the cantata, just as 
the singers were assembling, the disturbing 
news came that the man who was to sing the 
part of Boaz had missed his train. What 
was to be done! "I will sing his part too," 
offered Louise. She carried the basso-pro- 
f undo part, in addition to her own, with such 
success that everyone told her mother that 
Louise's voice was wonderful, and that it 
should be cultivated. 

Soon after this Louise began to take sing- 
ing lessons, but the thought of becoming an 
opera singer did not occur to her. She kept 
busy with her high-school work, and later 
on studied music in Philadelphia. She also 
sang in a church there. 



100 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Then one day Louise Beatty took the most 
important step in her life. She decided to go 
to Boston to study music seriously. She felt 
that she must know more about music itself, 
if she were to become a real singer. She was 
advised to study harmony and composition 
with Sidney Homer, well known as a writer 
of music. She began her lessons with Mr. 
Homer, and, in addition, studied singing 
w T ith William L. Whitney. 

In 1895 Louise Beatty and Sidney Homer 
were married. Mr. Homer believed that his 
wife's voice was unusual, and that it was es- 
pecially suited for opera. He wanted her to 
go abroad to train herself to be an opera 
singer. Accordingly, they went to Paris, 
where Madame Homer studied very hard for 
two years. She was able to do a tremendous 
amount of work without injuring her health, 
because she lived quietly and ate good home 
food at regular hours. 

Then came the reward of the long hours 
spent in singing with her teachers, in prac- 
ticing, and in studying languages and dra- 



LOUISE HOMER 101 

matics. Madame Homer was ready to sing 
in opera. In America, she appeared for the 
first time in San Francisco in the opera Aida, 
and a few weeks later in New York in the 
same part. She was a success at once. 

For many years Louise Homer has de- 
lighted American audiences with her beauti- 
ful contralto voice. To keep her voice in 
good condition, and to learn the many parts 
that she has sung has not been an easy task. 
Every day during the season she practices 
and studies. Madame Homer believes that 
a great name, once made, can only be kept 
by thorough work. 

While Madame Homer has never slighted 
any part of the work of her profession, neith- 
er has she neglected the work of home-mak- 
ing. She has always found time to be an in- 
telligent and affectionate mother to her chil- 
dren and to preside over a real home. Re- 
membering her own happy childhood, she has 
been determined that her children should 
have as much love and care and good train- 
ing as her own mother gave her. 



102 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Louise, the eldest daughter, has a good 
mezzo voice and has sung in recitals, some- 
times with her mother. Sidney, the second 
child, has also inherited musical ability. 

Madame Homer and her husband have al- 
ways been intensely interested in each other's 
work. The wife loves to sing the songs her 
husband composes, and he in turn takes de- 
light in dedicating them to her. Louise 
Homer possessed a remarkable voice, but 
lier own painstaking and constant work 
lias brought it to perfection. 




Harriet Goodhue Hosmer — 
The Girl Who Loved Art 
More Than Ease 

BATS, birds, toads, snakes, and beetles 
| filled the room. Some were stuffed 
and mounted, and the others were 
either dissected or preserved in alcohol. 
This room was neither a museum nor a boy's 
den. It was owned by a little girl known as 
"Happy Hatty," and she, herself, had collect- 
ed and prepared every one of its strange 
ornaments. 

At the time that Harriet Hosmer was 
young, dissecting animals was not consid- 



104 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

ered a proper amusement for a girl. The 
neighbors thought that Harriet would have 
been much better employed in sewing a fine 
seam. 

Harriet's father, an eminent physician,, 
had his own ideas about bringing up his lit- 
tle girl. Dr. Hosmer wanted her to live in 
the fresh air and sunshine so that she would 
be strong and healthy. The more Harriet 
ranged the woods in search of specimens, the 
better her father was pleased. 

Dr. Hosmer gave his little girl a boat, so 
that she could row on the Charles River, 
which flowed past her home. He had a Vene- 
tian gondola made for her, too, with velvet 
cushions and a silver prow. In fact, he 
thought that no gift was too rich for his 
little girl, so long as it would keep her in the 
open air. 

Harriet enjoyed out-of-door life. She 
grew tall and strong. Her muscles became 
firm from much rowing. She could walk 
miles without being tired, and was a fearless 
rider. Thus, unknowingly, did this little 



HARRIET GOODHUE HOSMER 105 

girl, who later became a distinguished sculp- 
tor, lay a strong foundation for her life 
work. 

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer was born in 
Watertown, Massachusetts, on October 9, 
1830. Even as a child she liked to play with 
clay and mold it into shapes. In one corner 
of the garden there was a clay-pit. Here the 
little girl used to go, when she grew tired of 
books, to fashion dogs and horses from the 
wet clay. 

Harriet went to school in Watertown, and 
later attended a private school at Lenox, 
Massachusetts. After three years at Lenox, 
Harriet returned home. She then began to 
study drawing and modeling in Boston. Of- 
ten she walked both to and from her lessons, 
a distance of fourteen miles. By this time, 
Harriet Hosmer realized that nothing made 
her happier than to turn formless bits of clay 
into beautiful objects. She felt that she 
would like to go still further in her work ; she 
wanted to see some of her ideas take shape 
in marble. 



106 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Harriet knew that a sculptor cannot fash- 
ion life-like figures of people or animals 
without understanding the position and 
shape of the bony frame under the flesh. 
The decorations of her museum-like room, 
all those specimens that she had dissected or 
mounted as a child, had given her a fair 
start in the study of anatomy. She also 
studied this subject with her father. How- 
ever, she realized that, if she were to be a 
real sculptor, she must know more about 
anatomy. She consequently looked about 
for a school where she might study. 

The Boston Medical School would not ac- 
cept this eager young student because she 
was a girl, but Harriet Hosmer was not a 
person to be daunted by one refusal. She 
was finally admitted to the St. Louis Medical 
College where she had a very thorough 
course in anatomy. After she had completed 
this course, she returned home and began to 
work seriously in a studio which her father 
had fitted up for her in his garden. 

A beautiful girl representing Hesper, the 



HARRIET GOODHUE HOSMER 107 

evening star, was the subject that Harriet 
Hosmer chose for her first original statue. 
From a solid block of marble she had a work- 
man knock off the corners. As he was not 
accustomed to working for sculptors she did 
not allow him to go within several inches of 
the part that she was to cut. All the rest of 
this difficult work she did with her own small 
hands. 

For eight or ten hours a day she chipped 
away at the block with chisel and a lead- 
en mallet weighing four pounds and a half. 
Muscles made strong and flexible by much 
rowing and other exercises enabled her to 
keep up this hard work day after day. The 
block of marble was finally turned into the 
head of a lovely maiden, her hair entwined 
with poppies and a star on her forehead. 

Beautiful as was this head of Hesper, 
Harriet Hosmer felt that she must study 
more. She was very desirous of entering 
the studio of John Gibson, a noted English 
sculptor who was then residing in Rome. 
Now Mr. Gibson, hearing that Miss Hosmer 



108 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

was young and rich, feared that she might 
be easily discouraged before real difficulties. 
However, as soon as he saw the daguerreo- 
types of her "Hesper," the great sculptor 
said to her father, "Whatever I can teach 
her, she shall learn." 

At the very beginning of her work with 
Mr. Gibson, Harriet Hosmer showed him 
that she was not the sort of girl who gives 
up easily. The iron rod in a clay copy of the 
Venus de Milo which she had modeled in 
order that her teacher might have an idea of 
her work snapped, and the figure fell to 
pieces. However, without stopping to com- 
plain, she started at once to make another 
model. 

Harriet Hosmer continued to work stead- 
ily with John Gibson. Then one day a mes- 
sage came from her father stating that he 
had lost his fortune and could no longer send 
her money. Miss Hosmer sold her fine sad- 
dle horse, and took an inexpensive room for 
herself. Now she was actually to work for 
her living. 



HARRIET GOODHUE HOSMER 109 

Miss Hosmer became an important figure 
in the art and literary circles in Rome. She 
numbered among her friends the Brownings, 
Hawthorne, the Thackerays, and many other 
interesting people. 

In the years that followed, many a beauti- 
ful statue emerged from unshaped marble 
through the tranforming touch of Harriet 
Hosmer's hands. Her statue "Puck" shows 
a merry little elf, sitting cross-legged on a 
toadstool, his left hand resting upon a lizard, 
his right, clasping a beetle. Some of her 
other important statues are "CEnone," 
"Beatrice Cenci," "Sleeping Faun," and a 
statue of Thomas H. Benton. "Zenobia in 
Chains," which is in the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art, is the most famous of all. This 
is a colossal statue, representing the beauti- 
ful Queen of Palmyra taken prisoner by the 
Roman Emperor Aurelian. 

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer so loved to 
watch beauty grow under her fingers that 
she was willing to give up the care-free, easy 
life that she might have had as the child of a 



110 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

rich man. Because she developed her talent 
through hard, serious work, she won for 
herself a high place among the sculptors of 
America. 




Julia Ward Howe — 

Whose Battle Hymn Sang Itself 
Into the Hearts of a Nation 



IN the days when New York was not the 
big city that it is now, there was a fash- 
ionable section called the Bowling Green. 
The people who lived there often used to see 
a great yellow coach roll by. Within, three 
little girls sat stiffly against the bright blue 
cushions. These children were dressed in 
blue coats and yellow satin bonnets to match 
the chariot and its lining. They were the 
three, little Ward children, one of them, Julia, 
to be known later throughout the land as 



112 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Julia Ward Howe. She is the author of the 
famous patriotic hymn which you sing so 
often at school, the "Battle Hymn of the Re- 
public." 

Julia Ward, the eldest of the three little 
girls, was born in New York City, May 27, 
1819. Although her father was a rich man 
and loved his children very dearly, they did 
not have many of the pleasures which most 
children to-day enjoy as a matter of course. 

The Ward girls had very little chance to 
romp and play outdoors and get acquainted 
with the birds and flowers. To be sure, they 
went to Newport, Rhode Island, in the sum- 
mer, but poor little Julia had to wear a thick 
green worsted veil to protect her delicate 
skin. It was not until she had children of 
her own that she realized how much she had 
missed in her youth. She was glad that her 
children could live close to Nature. 

Julia was, however, a happy child in spite 
of her rather sober life. She was alone much 
of the time, for her lively brothers were 
away at school and the two younger sisters 



JULIA WARD HOWE 113 

played by themselves; but she was never 
lonely. She read a great deal : Shakespeare, 
Byron, and as much other poetry as she 
could find. She enjoyed her music and other 
lessons. 

Julia was particularly fond of study. At 
first she had lessons at home, but at the age 
of nine she was sent to a private school near- 
by. Here this little girl studied a difficult 
book, Paley's Moral Philosophy, with girls of 
sixteen and eighteen years of age. 

Once, at this time, she heard a class recit- 
ing an Italian lesson. The musical sound of 
the language delighted her, and she listened 
whenever she had the chance. She secured 
a grammar, and studied it by herself. Then, 
one day, she handed the surprised teacher a 
letter, written correctly in Italian, asking 
permission to join the class. 

Julia loved to make up poetry, and when 
she was in her thirteenth year, she copied a 
number of her poems into a brown blank 
book as a present for her father. One of 
them was a poem written about her mother, 



114 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

whom she had lost when she was only six 
years old. Still another was in French ; and 
in the four stanzas there was only one mis- 
take. 

The study of languages was always a de- 
light to her. She spoke and wrote French 
and German very well. Later in life she 
studied Spanish, and at the age of fifty she 
did not feel that she was too old to begin the 
study of Greek. 

At twenty-four years of age Julia Ward 
married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. He was 
a noble-hearted man whom everyone knew 
as the first person to teach language to a 
blind deaf mute, namely, Laura Bridgman. 

A happy, busy time began for these two 
people, who believed that life should be lived 
for others. Dr. Howe was engaged with his 
work for the blind and for the freeing of the 
slaves. Mrs. Howe went on with her studies, 
and wrote poems, plays, and essays. She 
helped her husband with his antislavery 
work, and together they edited a newspaper 
called the Commonwealth. 



JULIA WARD HOWE 115 

Yet no matter how crowded these days 
were, there was always a time in the after- 
noon that was set aside for the children. The 
mother played and sang to the little folks, 
and there were merry romps, as the father, 
wrapped in a big fur coat, played bear and 
growled fiercely. Both mother and father 
often read aloud to their children. 

When the Civil War broke out, Julia 
Ward Howe longed to help her country and 
soon a special way came. One day, she was 
driving back into Washington with friends, 
after having witnessed a review of some 
troops. Their carriage was delayed by the 
returning soldiers. To pass away the time, 
Mrs. Howe and her companions began to 
sing war songs. Among them, they sang, 

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in 
the grave." 

"Why do you not write some good words 
for that stirring tune?" someone asked Mrs. 
Howe. 

"I have often wished to do so!" she an- 
swered. 



116 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

The next morning Mrs. Howe awoke be- 
fore dawn, and found the words of a song 
shaping themselves in her mind. As soon as 
the poem was complete, she rose and, in the 
early morning light, wrote it down on a 
sheet of paper. This poem was the famous 
"Battle Hymn of the Republic," which soon 
sang itself into the hearts of the nation. 

Mrs. Howe's writings have been numerous. 
In addition to her books of poetry she also 
wrote much in behalf of social reforms. She 
lectured far and wide, and loved to talk to 
school children. Because she wanted women 
to learn how to help themselves, she found- 
ed, or helped to found, many clubs and or- 
ganizations for them. She wanted them to 
have the vote too. 

Mrs. Howe's children have followed in 
their mother's footsteps and written books 
themselves. One of her daughters, Laura E. 
Richards, has written delightful stories for 
children. Her book, Two Noble Lives, tells 
very beautifully the life stories of her re- 
markable mother and father. Maud Howe 



JULIA WARD HOWE 117 

Elliott and Florence Howe Hall are also the 
authors of many books. The son, Henry 
Marion Howe, has written books on scien- 
tific subjects. 

Our country honors Julia Ward Howe as 
the author of one of its greatest songs, 
which will ever continue to stir our patriot- 
ism. Because as a girl she made the best use 
of her talents, she was enabled to fill a long 
life with great service. 




Helen Keller — 

The Deaf and Blind Girl Who Found 

Light and Happiness Through Knowledge 



N a beautiful southern garden where 
birds sang gaily and roses, honeysuckle, 
and jessamine shed their fragrance, lit- 
tle Helen lay face downward on the ground. 
She hid her hot cheeks in the cool leaves and 
grass. The tears flowed fast. Why, why 
would no one understand what she wanted? 
Sometimes it seemed as if she could not bear 
the world of darkness and silence in which 
she lived. This little girl could not talk like 
other children. Neither could she see the 



HELEN KELLER 119 

yellow rose petals, nor hear the songs of the 
birds. 

On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born in 
the little Alabama town of Tuscumbia. For 
nineteen months she was just like any other 
happy, healthy baby girl. Then a severe ill- 
ness took aw T ay her sight and hearing, and, 
because she was unable to hear her baby 
words, she soon forgot how to talk. 

One day when Helen was nearly seven 
years old, a new doll was put into her arms. 
Then, in her hand a lady made the letters 
d-o-l-l in the deaf alphabet. Helen did not 
know that things had names, but she was 
amused with this new game and imitated the 
letters for her mother. Helen's new friend 
and teacher was Miss Anne Sullivan. She 
had come from the Perkins Institution for 
the Blind, in Boston, to teach this little girL 

When the finger game had been going on 
for a month, Miss Sullivan spelled the word, 
w-a-t-e-r, into Helen's hand, letting her feel 
the water from the pump. A light broke 
over Helen's face. For the first time she un- 



120 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

derstood that everything had a name. She 
touched the pump and the trellis, and asked 
for their names. In a few hours she had 
learned thirty new words. That night Helen 
went to bed very happy, looking forward, 
for the first time in her life, to another day. 

A new, joyous life now began for this little 
girl whose mind had been in the dark. She 
soon realized that every word that she would 
learn would provide her with a new and 
pleasant thought. Miss Sullivan gave Helen 
slips of cardboard on which words were 
printed in raised letters. She never tired of 
playing the game of arranging these words 
in sentences. 

Down by the river Helen built dams of 
pebbles and dug lakes and bays and was 
taught how the world is made. In the woods 
her teacher put a violet or dogwood blossom 
in her hand and explained about growing 
things. She learned to know the crickets 
and katydids by holding them in her hand. 
Helen played all these games, not realizing 
that she was learning lessons. 



HELEN KELLER 121 

When Helen was eight years old, Miss Sul- 
livan took her to Boston to the Perkins Insti- 
tution for the Blind. The child was delight- 
ed to find there little girls and boys who 
could talk to her in the language of the hand. 
She enjoyed, too, the books in the library 
printed in raised type, and began to read in 
earnest. It was at this time that she climbed 
Bunker Hill Monument, counting every 
step. She had another lesson in history at 
Plymouth Rock. 

It was difficult, of course, for Helen to 
talk with people who did not know the deaf 
alphabet. Miss Sullivan had to spell out the 
conversation into her hand. When Helen 
heard of a deaf girl who had been taught 
to speak, she was determined to learn too. 

It was the hardest task that she had un- 
dertaken, for she could not hear the sound 
of her own voice nor see the lips of others. 
She would feel the position of her teacher's 
tongue and lips when making a sound, and 
then imitate the motions. Constant practice 
and the great desire to achieve always 



122 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

spurred her efforts. It was slow, tedious 
work, but Helen persevered. 

She did succeed in learning to speak. It 
was a very happy day when Helen actually 
spoke to her parents and to her little sister 
Mildred. 

At ten years of age Helen had put her 
whole heart and will into learning to speak. 
Six years later, after having studied lip- 
reading, French and German, and other dif- 
ficult subjects, she determined to undertake 
what seemed like another impossibility. She 
made up her mind to go to college ! 

Many of the books that she needed were 
not printed in raised type. She could not 
hear lectures nor take notes. Such were a 
few of the difficulties that this young girl 
had to face. Nevertheless, Helen was not to 
be discouraged. She entered the Cambridge 
School for Young Ladies and bravely began 
her preparation for Radcliffe College. 

Miss Sullivan went to Helen's classes with 
her and spelled into her hand all that the 
teachers said. Helen wrote her composi- 



HELEN KELLER 123 

tions on the typewriter. She used it, too, in 
answering successfully the examination 
questions. 

Helen was urged to take special work at 
college, but she preferred to follow the regu- 
lar course. Once more this blind and deaf 
girl conquered all the difficulties, and in 1904 
was graduated from Radcliffe College. She 
had completed the same course as had the 
young women at Radcliffe College and the 
young men at Harvard University who could 
see and hear. 

As Helen Keller grew older, she realized 
that knowledge, besides giving pleasure, en- 
ables one to be of more help in the world. 
After her graduation she was eager to be of 
service. Naturally, she thought of the blind 
first. Miss Keller was made a member of 
the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind 
and served on several boards for the blind 
and deaf. She has always urged that the 
blind be given the kind of education that will 
fit them to support themselves. 

Miss Keller has written many magazine 



124 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

articles and several books. When she was 
only twelve years old she wrote a short ac- 
count of her life for the Youth's Companion. 
Her The Story of My Life was published be- 
fore her graduation from college. 

Instead of being a burden, this blind and 
deaf girl early became a happy, useful citi- 
zen. She has succeeded because she was 
determined to know more, no matter how 
much hard work it cost her. Helen Keller 
says that the worst darkness is ignorance. 
Her life motto has been: "Knowledge is 
love and light and vision." 




Maria Mitchell— 
The Girl Who Studied the Stars 



IT was an eventful day in the Mitchell 
home. The parlor window had been tak- 
en out and the telescope mounted in 
front of it. Twelve-year-old Maria, at her 
father's side, counted the seconds while he 
observed a total eclipse of the sun. 

Not every twelve-year-old girl could be 
trusted to use the chronometer, an instru- 
ment which measures the time even more 
accurately than a watch. Maria, however, 
had been helping her father in his study of 
the stars ever since she could count. Before 



126 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

many years this little girl beside the tele- 
scope became America's best-known woman 
astronomer. 

On the little three-cornered island of Nan- 
tucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, Maria 
Mitchell was born, August 1, 1818. With its 
broad sandy beaches, its wide moors, and 
ocean breezes, the island was a delightful 
spot in which to grow up. 

The Mitchell home was a pleasant place, 
filled with the laughter and fun of a large 
family of children. Due to the mother's 
careful planning, the wheels of the house- 
hold machinery ran very smoothly. No one 
would have guessed, by seeing the cheerful, 
comfortable home, how far Mrs. Mitchell 
had to stretch a tiny income. 

Work and play were happily mingled. Lit- 
tle Maria, with her sisters, learned to cook 
and sew. Maria was always ready to do her 
share of the household work. If she swept a 
room, she did it thoroughly. When she ar- 
ranged the furniture it might not be done 
artistically, but every piece was straight. 






MARIA MITCHELL 127 

She could not bear to have things crooked. 
This exactness about little things was one 
of the qualities that made it possible for this 
girl to became a great astronomer. 

There were always good books in the Mit- 
chell home. They were read over and over, 
and were very carefully handled. One text- 
book, an algebra, was used by eight children 
in succession, each child adding his name in- 
side the cover. 

Mr. Mitchell, who was a Quaker, enjoyed 
quoting to his children from the Bible and 
from the poets. He was particularly fond of 
references to his beloved stars. He often 
said that an astronomer could not fail to be- 
lieve in God. One of the earliest poems that 
Maria learned was about the heavens, be- 
ginning, "The spacious firmament on high." 
She used to like to say it over to herself when 
in later years she was frightened or troubled. 

The most unusual object in Maria's home 
was her father's telescope. On pleasant 
evenings it was set up in the back yard. 
Ever since boyhood Mr. Mitchell had been in- 



128 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

terested in the stars and had made astron- 
omy his special study. Every clear evening 
he observed the heavens. Maria was always 
glad to help him. Soon she took*as keen a 
delight in watching the sky as he. 

The chronometers of all the whale ships 
which sailed into Nantucket were brought 
to Mr. Mitchell to be "rated," as it was called. 
Maria used to help her father with this ; and 
at a very early age learned how to use a 
measuring instrument called the sextant. 

There was no school at this time where 
Maria Mitchell could be taught astronomy. 
Even Harvard University had no better tele- 
scope than her father's. Maria, however, 
had an excellent teacher in him. Many scien- 
tists sought out Mr. Mitchell in remote Nan- 
tucket, and Maria had the benefit of their 
conversation. 

The years of Maria Mitchell's girlhood 
passed quietly but happily. She went to two 
schools that her father taught, and then to a 
private school where she did very good work 
in mathematics. At sixteen years of age she 



MARIA MITCHELL 129 

began to teach. She gave up teaching, how- 
ever, to become librarian of the Nantucket 
Athenaeum, a position that she held for near- 
ly twenty years. 

The library was open only afternoons and 
Saturday evenings. In the afternoons there 
were few visitors, so Miss Mitchell had 
plenty of time for reading and study. She 
went on w T ith her studies in higher mathe- 
matics and worked out difficult astronomi- 
cal problems. Whenever visitors came in 
and chatted, as they liked to do with this 
bright, interesting young woman, her book 
was dropped for knitting. Maria Mitchell 
never wasted a moment. 

Every clear evening was spent on the 
housetop observing the heavens. No matter 
how many guests there were in the parlor, 
Miss Mitchell would slip out and, lantern in 
hand, mount to the roof where the telescope 
was now kept. 

On October 1, 1847, there was a party at 
the Mitchell home. Maria, as usual, ran up 
to the telescope. Presently she hurried back 



130 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

and told her father that she had seen a new 
comet. Mr. Mitchell was convinced that she 
was right and he wrote to Harvard Univer- 
sity, announcing the discovery. Maria Mit- 
chell received for this discovery a gold medal 
offered sixteen years before, by the King of 
Denmark, to the first discoverer of a tele- 
scopic comet. This won world-wide distinc- 
tion for Miss Mitchell. 

The next year another great honor came 
to the Nantucket girl. She was elected to 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
She was the first woman to be admitted to 
this important scientific society. 

Soon after this Miss Mitchell was asked to 
put her knowledge of astronomy to use on a 
work for navigators called the American 
Nautical Almanac. She was to watch the 
course of the planet Venifs, and to make the 
tables which mariners need to guide them. 
For nineteen years she kept up this impor- 
tant work. 

It was quite natural that a woman who 
had watched ships pass her island home ever 



MARIA MITCHELL 131 

since childhood should long to travel. Miss 
Mitchell was especially eager to meet the 
great scientists of Europe. At last the 
happy time came for a European trip. 
Everywhere she was cordially received, and 
astronomers not only opened their observa- 
tories to her, but welcomed her in their 
homes. 

Shortly after Vassar College was opened, 
Maria ^Mitchell was asked to become its pro- 
fessor of astronomy and director of the ob- 
servatory. Accepting this position meant 
giving up to a great extent her own studies 
and the hopes of making more discoveries 
in the heavens. However, Miss Mitchell was 
very anxious that women should have a 
chance for higher education. Therefore, she 
put her own ambitions aside and threw her- 
self into the work of teaching. 

Hundreds who knew her at Vassar will 
say that she chose wisely. She was honored 
as a remarkable teacher and loved as a friend 
and adviser. 

Miss Mitchell was a prominent member of 



132 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

many important organizations. Several col- 
leges conferred " degrees upon her. 

In 1905 Maria Mitchell was elected to the 
Hall of Fame. This hall, which is situated on 
the grounds of New York University, was 
built to commemorate the achievements of 
distinguished citizens of the United States. 

Maria Mitchell lives in the memory of 
scientists as a great astronomer. She lives 
in the hearts of her students as onp who 
taught the beauty of thorough and accurate 
work, and of lives free from pretense and 
sham. 




Alice Freeman Palmer — 
The Girl Who Guided College Girls 



MR. Freeman lifted his five-year-old 
daughter to the platform to speak 
her piece. Little Alice had been al- 
lowed to go comfortably to sleep during the 
earlier part of the village entertainment. 
However, as soon as she was on her feet, all 
traces of drowsiness disappeared. She loved 
the bit of poetry that she had taught her- 
self. With rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, 
she declaimed it so enthusiastically that the 
whole roomful of people burst into delighted 
clapping. 



134 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Seeing smiling faces all about her, Alice 
smiled, too, and put her little hands together 
and clapped as vigorously as anyone. She 
did not realize that it was she herself who 
had given the audience pleasure. Because 
these friends and neighbors were happy, she 
was happy with them. 

When she grew up, Alice Freeman could 
still forget herself and enter into the moods 
of others. She seemed to know exactly how 
the other person felt. That was one of the 
reasons why, when she became the president 
of Wellesley College, she was able to help the 
students make the very best of their lives. 

This first public appearance of Alice El- 
vira Freeman was in the country village of 
Colesville, New York, where she was born, 
February 21, 1855. Her father was a young 
farmer, high-minded and hard working. 
Her mother was a farmer's daughter and 
had been a school teacher. Both parents 
were very deeply religious. 

Mrs. Freeman was so busy cooking and 
churning and washing that five-year-old 



ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 135 

Alice helped her all that she could. She 
washed dishes, gathered eggs from the barn, 
and looked after the three younger children. 

Two years later there was even more need 
of Alices help. Mr. Freeman had decided to 
become a doctor, and his young wife had 
bravely undertaken to carry on the farm 
alone while he was studying. The two little 
sisters and the brother depended on Alice to 
fasten their buttons and to amuse them. 
Thus from a very early age Alice Freeman 
had to think for others as well as for her- 
self. Such training was of great value to 
her when she had to care for a large family 
of Wellesley College girls. 

When Alice's father began to practice 
medicine in the village of Windsor, New 
York, Alice loved to drive with him and hold 
the horse during his visits to patients. She 
was interested in hearing about his cases 
and she enjoyed the shady roads and way- 
side flowers. Throughout her whole life, 
she rejoiced that she had been a country 
child. 



136 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

At ten years of age Alice Freeman became 
an eager pupil at the Windsor Academy. 
One of her teachers, who had taken a great 
interest in her throughout her course, in- 
spired Alice to go to college. 

When Alice talked the matter over with 
her father, he said that he could not afford 
to send her to college. He felt that, as there 
was only money enough for one college edu- 
cation in the family, the boy must have it. 
Alice begged very hard to go. She promised 
to send her brother through college, and to 
give to her sisters whatever education they 
desired. Dr. Freeman at length consented 
to her entering the University of Michigan. 
As for her promise, she kept it to the letter. 

At the University Alice was confronted 
with her next big problem. She failed to 
pass her entrance examinations ! The Pres- 
ident had already talked with the earnest, 
intelligent seventeen-year-old girl. He real- 
ized that her school, though a good one, had 
not prepared her for college. Therefore he 
asked the examiners to allow her to enter on 



ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 137 

a six weeks' trial. At the end of that time, 
there was no doubt of Alice Freeman's abil- 
ity to lead her classmates. 

This frail girl made up all the studies re- 
quired for entrance, did excellent work in 
her classes, and took an active part in the 
college clubs. She went to church twice on 
Sunday and attended a midweek service. 
She taught a Sunday-school class and put 
new life into the Christian Association. She 
was never too busy to be friendly, cheerful, 
and joyous. 

Alice Freeman received her Bachelor's de- 
gree after four years of college work. Three 
years later, after having taught successfully 
in the middle west, she was asked to become 
the head of the history department at 
Wellesley College. In 1881, when she was 
only twenty-six years old, Miss Freeman 
was made its president. 

As college president Miss Freeman led a 
very busy life. The college was young and 
needed to be guided carefully. She worked 
so lovingly and enthusiastically for it that 



138 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

more students applied than could be ad- 
mitted. Wealthy people gave money for 
scholarships, and many new schools were 
started to prepare students for college. 

Miss Freeman was a real mother to the 
large family of Wellesley College girls. They 
were free to go to her with all their problems, 
and they never went in vain. She had a way 
of seeing the best thing in a girl and of mak- 
ing her feel that she must bring the whole up 
to this level. 

After six years of this devoted service to 
Wellesley College, Alice Freeman was mar- 
ried to George Herbert Palmer, then Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy at Harvard University. 
Happy years followed for them. Mrs. Pal- 
mer was as successful a home-maker as she 
had been a college president. She was a de- 
lightful hostess to the many interesting 
guests that were welcomed at their home. 

Mrs. Palmer still found plenty of work to 
do for others. She was a trustee of Welles- 
ley College, a member of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Education, and the president 



ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 139 

of the International Institute for Girls in 
Spain. She always could find time for any 
cause which was to make the world wiser 
and better. 

From all over the country Mrs. Palmer's 
advice was sought on whatever had to do 
with education. Many colleges and univer- 
sities conferred degrees upon her. In 1920 
her name was greatly honored by being se- 
lected for the Hall of Fame. 

Alice Freeman Palmer, college president 
and great educator, never lost the child 
Alice's gift of sympathy. She cared very 
deeply what people did with their lives. That 
was why she could inspire them to be of real 
service. 




Maud Powell — 

The Girl Whose Violin Spread Afar 

The Message of Music 



THE sweet strains of one of Mozart's 
violin sonatas filled the room. One of 
the players was a bright-eyed little 
girl. The other, it was easy to guess from the 
proud and tender look that she gave her lit- 
tle companion, was the child's mother. Both 
mother and daughter loved these hours to- 
gether with their violins. 

Music meant much to this mother. She en- 
joyed composing as well as playing. She was 
very happy to know that music gave pleasure 



MAUD POWELL 141 

to her little daughter also. The hope was in 
this mother's heart that some day little 
Maud would be a great musician. It was a 
hope that was realized, for, in later years, 
Maud Powell became known as the foremost 
American violinist. 

Maud Powell was born in Peru, Illinois, 
August 22, 1868. When she was two years 
old, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, 
where, for several years, her father was head 
of the public schools. From the time that 
little Maud was a baby she loved music. 
When she was only four years old, she was 
taught to play simple pieces on the piano. 

At an early age she showed such fondness 
for the violin that Mr. and Mrs. Powell de- 
cided to have her study in Chicago with Mr. 
William Lewis. Twice every week little 
Maud had to travel on the train, forty miles 
each way, to take her lessons. She had to go 
alone, too, because money could not be spared 
to pay the fare of a companion. The little 
musician enjoyed these lessons very much. 
After she grew up she did not forget this 



142 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

teacher, and often said that he had given her 
a splendid foundation for her work. 

Before she was ten years old, the little 
violinist played in public as a soloist with the 
Chicago Ladies Vocal Quartet. By the time 
that she was twelve years old, it was quite 
evident that Maud Powell had real talent for 
the violin. Then, her parents decided that 
their little girl must be given the best possi- 
ble musical education. They fully realized 
that this would be very expensive, and would 
necessitate a long absence from home. 

One day Maud said good-by to her dear 
father and all her young friends, and sailed 
away to Germany with her mother to study 
music. Mr. Powell missed his little girl and 
her mother very much, but he was proud 
when he received letters telling of his daugh- 
ter's success. The good news helped him to 
work harder so as to be able to send them the 
necessary money. 

After studying at Leipzig, the little Ameri- 
can girl passed a brilliant examination, and 
was chosen to play at a public concert. 



MAUD POWELL 143 

Later, Mrs. Powell was anxious to have her 
daughter study with a distinguished French 
teacher, Charles Dancla, at the Paris Conser- 
vatory. Maud learned that there were only 
a few new pupils to be admitted and that she 
would be one of eighty applicants. The ex- 
aminations were made especially severe for 
foreigners, but Maud Powell was the first 
to be admitted. 

This Frenchman delighted in teaching the 
eager young American girl. He took great 
pains with her, and was always just and fair. 
After having had but three lessons on a se- 
lection on which a class of eighty-four was 
to be examined, Maud Powell passed above 
everyone else. One of the pupils had been 
studying this selection for six months. It 
was not only Maud Powell's greater talent 
but also her general knowledge of music that 
made it possible for her to grasp new work 
readily. 

The lonely father at home was cheered by 
messages of his young daughter's success 
and popularity in London, where she was 



144 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

playing in drawing-rooms and at concerts. 
Joachim, a distinguished German violinist, 
was so impressed by Maud Powell's playing 
that he wanted her to join his class in Ber- 
lin. He said that she was more than a mere 
talented child ; that she would, with training, 
make a great artist. She passed the exami- 
nations for his class, without the usual six 
months' preparation, and worked hard with 
him for a year. 

Then came the longed-for return to Amer- 
ica and the reuniting of the family. Maud 
Powell was eager to show her father that his 
sacrifices had not been in vain. Many people 
thought that the violin was an instrument 
for a man only. Nevertheless, at the age of 
seventeen, this young girl made her debut 
as a violin soloist at a concert of the New 
York Philharmonic Society, conducted by 
Theodore Thomas. From that time on the 
fame of Maud Powell's violin grew. It was 
heard throughout the United States and in 
many foreign lands. 

Miss Powell did not play merely for a live- 



MAUD POWELL 145 

lihood or for fame. Music had meant so 
much to her that she felt that she must bring 
it into the lives of others. She was especially 
eager to give the inspiration of her music to 
people who had few opportunities of hear- 
ing great artists. That was why she gave 
recitals in hundreds of small towns, and was 
always glad to play for schools and colleges. 

Miss Powell never slighted her programs 
even though she was playing in the smallest 
place. She gave her best, thinking that some 
one in her audience might not have another 
opportunity to hear good music. 

In fact, Miss Powell never gave anything 
but her best at any concert. She would 
memorize a long selection perfectly even if 
she knew it were to be played only once. She 
took great pains to have her programs 
varied, and delighted in introducing Ameri- 
can compositions to her audiences. 

In 1904 Miss Powell married H. Godfrey 
Turner. He assisted her greatly by attend- 
ing to the business arrangements for her 
concerts. 



146 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

Great praise and appreciation came to 
Maud Powell for the marvelous music that 
she brought forth from her violin. How- 
ever, the road from gifted childhood to fin- 
ished artist was a long, hard one. She pushed 
aside every obstacle by her tireless work. 
The long hours of practicing and the years 
of homelessness and loneliness were endured 
for the sake of her beloved music, Maud 
Powell will always be remembered, not only 
because she played the violin remarkably, 
but because she carried the message of mu- 
sic to out-of-the-way parts of the world. 




"A" 



Ellen H. Richards— 

A Scientist 
Who Helped Home-Makers 

HALF pound of saleratus, please," 
demanded a customer. "I never 
can cook with soda." "Give me 
baking soda," another woman insisted. "I 
cannot use saleratus." 

The bright-eyed young girl behind the 
counter of the country store supplied them 
both from the same package, rather amused 
that they should not know that baking soda 
and saleratus are as alike as two peas in a 
pod. 



148 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

"I should like to know more about the na- 
ture of the things that I am selling/' thought 
Ellen Swallow. Little did she dream that 
her future years were to be spent in making 
life easier and happier for women by en- 
abling them to learn about these very things. 

On December 3, 1842, Ellen Henrietta 
Swallow was born near the village of Duns- 
table, Massachusetts. She was an out-of- 
door girl and loved to follow her father and 
uncles about the farm. She drove the cows 
to pasture, rode horseback, and often pitched 
hay. She made a little flower garden too, 
and tended it carefully. 

Little Ellen was also quick and skillful at 
indoor tasks. Her mother, who had a deft 
hand at any kind of housework, taught her 
to sew and cook. Ellen's doll's bed had 
sheets and pillowcases daintily hemstitched 
by her own hand. At the country fair, one 
year, two prizes fell to thirteen-year-old 
Ellen Swallow, one for a beautifully em- 
broidered handkerchief and another for the 
best loaf of bread. 



ELLEN H. RICHARDS 149 

Ellen's mother and father were well edu- 
cated, and had been teachers. They taught 
Ellen at home until she was ready for the 
academy. 

Mr. Swallow gave up farming and opened 
a country store in the village of Westford,, 
Massachusetts, so that Ellen could attend the 
academy there. Ellen enjoyed her studies 
and mastered them thoroughly. She was 
such a fine Latin student that later she was 
able to earn money for her college expenses 
by teaching that subject. 

Ellen Swallow was as active and energetic 
out of school as in school. She was a capable 
little business woman. She waited on cus- 
tomers in her father's store and kept his ac- 
counts. She even made trips to Boston to 
buy goods for the store. This early training 
was very helpful when in later years she had 
to handle large sums of money for many phil- 
anthropic and educational purposes. 

At home Ellen was often the housekeeper 
for weeks at a time, during her frail mother's 
illnesses. She not only cooked and washed, 



150 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

but she cleaned house, papered rooms, and 
laid carpets, as well. What she learned of 
managing a house in her school-girl days 
was a very valuable addition to what science 
taught her later about good home-making. 
Ellen Swallow was very quick and capable. 
In addition to her school, home, and store 
duties, she had time for reading and for 
working in her precious flower garden. 

After her academy days Ellen Swallow's 
hours were filled by teaching a country 
school, helping in the store and at home, and 
caring for sick friends and neighbors; but 
she was not satisfied. She felt a great long- 
ing to learn and to do more. 

There was no college in New England at 
that time which admitted women. Ellen 
Swallow therefore decided to enter Vassar 
College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, which 
had only recently been founded. 

College days were very happy ones for 
this active-minded young woman. She wrote 
home to her mother glowing accounts of her 
new life and told her all about her school 



ELLEN H. RICHARDS 151 

work and the books that she was reading. 
Science was her favorite study. One of her 
teachers was Maria Mitchell, who took a 
great interest in the young girl. 

After graduating from Vassar College, 
Ellen Swallow was eager to go on with the 
study of chemistry that she had begun there. 
After some difficulty she gained admittance 
to the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy, as its first woman student. In fact, she 
was the first woman to enter any strictly 
scientific school in the United States. One 
of the teachers thought that this young 
woman looked rather frail to be taking such 
difficult work. The President answered, 
"Did you notice her eyes? They are stead- 
fast and they are courageous. She will not 
fail." 

Not only did she not fail in her studies, but 
she also supported herself. She did tutor- 
ing, took charge of an office for a friend, and 
temporarily ran the boarding house where 
she lived. 

It was feared about this time that the 



152 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

water near many towns and cities in Massa- 
chusetts was becoming unfit for drinking. 
The newly organized State Board of Health 
decided to have samples of the water ex- 
amined to see whether it contained impuri- 
ties. 

Miss Swallow had proved herself to be so 
accurate and dependable that the chemist 
chosen to analyze the water handed over 
most of the work to her. Often she had to 
work far into the night when many samples 
came in at a time. She analyzed forty thou- 
sand samples of water. This careful work 
meant the prevention of much disease. For 
ten years she was assistant chemist for the 
State Board of Health, and then chemist for 
ten years. 

When Ellen Swallow was married to Pro- 
fessor Robert Hallowell Richards, head of 
the department of mining engineering in 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
she did not give up her public work. Yet she 
maintained a real home in which she carried 
out her ideas about building and furnishing, 



ELLEN H. RICHARDS 153 

cleanliness and fresh air, and labor-saving 
devices. Many guests were welcomed to this 
busy woman's home and all found it a place 
of restfulness and peace. 

Mrs. Richards' great desire was that girls 
should have the same opportunity to receive 
a scientific training as had boys. Largely 
through her efforts a Woman's Laboratory 
was opened in connection with the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology. This Lab- 
oratory was established for the purpose of 
giving scientific training to women. 

Mrs. Richards gave generously to the Lab- 
oratory, teaching without salary, and con- 
tributing to its support as well. Soon after 
women were admitted to the Institute on the 
same footing as men, Mrs. Richards was 
made Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry in 
the Institute, a position which she held for 
the rest of her life. 

Mrs. Richards might have spent her time 
in scientific research. However, she pre- 
ferred instead to put her knowledge of 
science to practical use. She tested wall pa- 



154 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

pers and fabrics to see if they contained ar- 
senic, and staple groceries to detect impu- 
rities. She studied oils to discover how the 
danger from explosives could be lessened. 

Mrs. Richards wrote many helpful books 
about home-making. She organized a society 
of people interested in promoting right liv- 
ing in the home, the school, and the commu- 
nity. The name of this organization is 
American Home Economics Association. Be- 
cause of her influence home economics is 
now taught in schools throughout the land. 

To Ellen H. Richards, sanitary chemist, 
the facts of science were never just facts, but 
the means of making people healthier and 
happier. 




Elizabeth Cady Stanton — 

The Girl Who Helped to Draft 

Woman's Declaration of Independence 



"W 



r HAT a pity it is she's a girl!" 
Four-year-old Elizabeth heard 
this remark over and over again 
from the visitors who had come to see her 
baby sister. She thought that she ought to 
feel sorry for the baby, too. When she was 
a little older, Elizabeth Cady realized what a 
pity it was that girls and women could not 
have the same privileges and advantages as 
had boys and men. 

Elizabeth Cady was born at Johnstown, 



156 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

New York, November 12, 1815. When this 
little girl grew up, she called the first Wom- 
an's Rights Convention and worked all her 
life to gain more privileges for women. As 
a child she felt the disadvantages of being a 
girl in the early days of the 1800's. 

When her only brother, a fine promising 
college graduate, died, eleven-year-old Eliza- 
beth realized that her father loved his son 
far more than all of his five daughters. 
Longing to comfort him Elizabeth climbed 
on his knee. 

"Oh, my daughter, would that you were a 
boy !" was all that he could say. 

From that moment Elizabeth resolved 
to equal boys. To be learned and coura- 
geous she decided was the way to accomplish 
her purpose. Before breakfast the next 
morning she went to her dear friend and pas- 
tor and asked him to teach her Greek. She 
insisted on beginning that very minute. To 
prove herself courageous she learned to 
drive a horse, and to leap a fence and ditch 
on horseback. 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 157 

Within a short time she began to study 
Greek, Latin, and mathematics with a class 
of boys at the village academy. She did so 
well that she won the second prize, a Greek 
testament. Joyfully Elizabeth rushed home 
expecting to hear her father say, "Now, you 
are equal to a boy." However, his kisses and 
praise failed to take away the sting of his 
remark, "Ah, you should have been a boy!" 

Elizabeth's father was a distinguished 
lawyer and judge. His office adjoined the 
house, and there his little daughter spent 
much of her time talking with his students 
and listening to his clients. 

Often his clients were widows wjio wept 
and complained that the property which they 
had brought into the family had been willed 
to their sons. Elizabeth could not under- 
stand why her father, who was wise and 
kind, could not help these poor women. Then 
Judge Cady would take down from the 
shelves a big volume and show her the law. 

The students, seeing how interested she 
was in the laws about women, amused them- 



158 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

selves by reading to her the most unfair 
laws that they could find. They often teased 
her, too, in order to hear her bright remarks. 

Little Elizabeth was so distressed by the 
unfairness of the law in regard to women 
that she made up her mind to cut them all out 
of her father's law books. She refrained 
from doing this upon learning that it would 
not help the situation. 

Much to her disgust Elizabeth Cady could 
not go to college, as did her boy classmates, 
for at that time girls were not admitted. 
However, she entered the Willard Seminary 
for girls in Troy, New York, where she stud- 
ied for some time. Later she went on with 
her studies at home, never losing her interest 
in laws for women. 

In her twenty-fifth year Elizabeth Cady 
married Henry B. Stanton, a lecturer on 
antislavery, who later became a lawyer. 
After several happy years in Johnstown and 
Boston, the young couple settled in Seneca 
Falls, New York. By this time the champion 
of woman's rights began to know by expe- 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 159 

rience something of a woman's home prob- 
lems. She had a big house to manage with 
very little help, and her lively girls and boys 
needed constant care. 

In her round of everyday duties, however, 
Mrs. Stanton did not forget the wrongs to 
women. She, together with Lucretia Mott 
and some others, called a big meeting, the 
first Woman's Rights Convention, at Seneca 
Falls in 1848, to talk over this question. 

At this meeting Mrs. Stanton and her co- 
workers presented a Declaration of Senti- 
ments based upon the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. They also presented eleven reso- 
lutions, one of which demanded the vote for 
women. Mrs. Stanton was entirely respon- 
sible for this resolution and placed great em- 
phasis upon it. She believed that through 
the ballot for women all other rights for 
women could be secured. 

The newspapers made a great deal of fun 
of all the reforms discussed at the conven- 
tion, particularly the proposal that women 
should vote. In those days most people were 



160 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

quite ready to admit that a woman could 
manage her home capably and be bright and 
entertaining in company. However, they 
thought it very unwomanly that she should 
dream of helping to make laws to secure 
better schools or cleaner streets. 

Mrs. Stanton was surprised and distressed 
to have her very serious purpose treated so 
lightly, but ridicule did not prevent her from 
upholding woman's rights whenever she had 
an opportunity. 

Three years after this she met Susan B. 
Anthony, the woman who was to be her life- 
long friend and fellow-worker. Except for 
their lectures in the cause of temperance and 
antislavery, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony 
gave their whole lives to gaining more free- 
dom for their fellow-women. 

The two friends were very different in 
characteristics, but they were of one mind 
on the question of woman's rights. Miss An- 
thony had not at first thought it necesary for 
women to have the vote, but she was soon 
won over to her friend's opinion. Year after 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 161 

year these two earnest workers endeavored 
to arouse the country to do something for 
women. Never a jealous thought as to 
which one should have the glory for any- 
thing accomplished marred this fifty years 
of friendship. 

Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony lectured 
in big cities and all sorts of little aut-of-the 
way places. Together with their friend Mrs. 
Gage, they wrote a very complete history of 
what had been done to gain the vote for 
women. 

Of Mrs. Stanton's children, a daughter, 
Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, has followed 
directly in her mother's footsteps as a public 
speaker for the cause of women. She has 
also written several books about woman's 
place in the work of the world, Theodore 
Stanton, one of the sons, also writes in behalf 
of women. 

Throughout a long lifetime Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton courageously and steadfastly plead- 
ed the cause of women. She lived to see them 
enjoying better property rights and educa- 



162 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

tional privileges, and in four states helping- 
to make the laws. Eighteen years after her 
death the Nineteenth Amendment gave the- 
vote to women throughout the United States. 






Harriet Beecher Stowe — 

The Girl Whose Story of Slavery 

Aroused the Whole World 

IT was the night of the annual exhibition 
of the Litchfield Academy. Twelve-year- 
old Harriet Beecher waited eagerly for a 
certain part of the program. Presently she 
heard read before all the learned people as- 
sembled the familiar words of her own com- 
position, one of the three chosen for this 
great occasion. 

As Harriet listened to the sentences that 
she had composed with so much care, she 
watched the face of her father who sat on 



164 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

the platform. It brightened. She knew that 
he was interested. 

At the close of the entertainment she 
heard him ask, "Who wrote that composi- 
tion?" 

Her teacher replied, "Your daughter, sir." 

It was the proudest moment of Harriet's 
life. When this little academy student be- 
came a woman she wrote a book which set 
the whole world to thinking of the evil of 
slavery. It was Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

Harriet Beecher was born at Litchfield, 
Connecticut, June 14, 1811. Her father had 
only a country parson's meagre salary to 
provide for the .wants of eleven children. 
What a father he was — grave and serious 
enough in the pulpit, but full of fun and en- 
thusiasm at home. It was mere play for 
Harriet and the boys to pile wood, when their 
father superintended. 

Harriet was very rich in sisters and broth- 
ers. She loved them all dearly, especially the 
merry, energetic big sister, Catherine, and 
the chubby little boy two years younger than 



HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 165 

she, Henry Ward Beecher, who grew up to 
be a famous minister. 

Little Harriet had only a sweet memory 
of her mother who had died when she was a 
small child. Wherever she went, she was 
told of her mother's beautiful life. It made 
her very happy to know that she had a moth- 
er whom everyone loved. 

There were no expensive toys in the Beech- 
er family, but Harriet was well content with- 
out them. She played with her glass-eyed 
wooden doll and a set of cups and saucers 
made by her own hands out of codfish bones. 
In the woodpile she found treasures in the 
moss and lichens on the logs. From them she 
fashioned little pictures using the moss for 
green "fields, sprigs of spruce for the trees, 
and bits of glass for lakes and rivers. 

Some of Harriet's happiest hours were 
spent curled up in a corner of her father's 
study, surrounded by her favorite books. 
It was a peaceful, restful place, she thought. 
She liked to glance up at her dear father as 
he was writing or thinking over his sermons. 



166 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

She enjoyed looking at the friendly faces of 
the books on the shelves. Very few of them, 
however, were books that she could under- 
stand. 

One day while rummaging in a barrel of 
old sermons in the attic, Harriet came upon 
a copy of the Arabian Nights. How she and 
her brothers pored over its pages ! Another 
precious treasure discovered in a barrel was 
Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. 

Harriet's delight in stories was satisfied 
in another way. Every fall it was the cus- 
tom to make enough apple sauce to last for 
the winter. It took a whole barrelful for the 
big Beecher family. All the little fingers 
were pressed into service to peel or quarter 
apples. Mr. Beecher would then ask who 
could tell the best story. As the apples bub- 
bled and hissed in the big brass kettle, story 
after story went around. Mr. Beecher, him- 
self, recited scenes from Sir Walter Scott's 
novels, which were then new. 

In the unheated, barnlike meetinghouse 
where Mr. Beecher preached, Harriet also 



HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 167 

spent many happy hours, although she was 
cold and cramped from sitting through the 
long sermons. Usually she did not under- 
stand her father's big words, but one day he 
spoke so earnestly and simply about God's 
love that Harriet never forgot it. 

When Harriet grew up, she married Cal- 
vin Ellis Stowe. He was a professor in the 
Lane Theological Seminary, in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, of which her father had become the 
president. 

In Ohio, adjacent to the slave state of Ken- 
tucky, everybody was thinking and talking 
about slavery. The Fugitive Slave Law, 
whereby runaway slaves must be returned 
to their masters, was causing heated discus- 
sions. Mrs. Stowe and her husband believed 
this to be a very unjust law and they helped 
a colored girl, the "Eliza" of Uncle Tom's 
Cabin, to escape from her pursuers. Mrs. 
Stowe opened a school for colored children 
in her house, and raised money to buy the 
freedom of a slave boy. 

Ever since the days of her school composi- 



168 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

tions Mrs. Stowe had enjoyed writing, and 
some of her stories had found their way into 
the papers. When Professor Stowe went to 
Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, to 
teach, his wife tried to do a little writing 
to add to his small salary. However, the 
work of looking after a large house and her 
family of small children left her little time 
for writing stories. Sometimes with her pa- 
per on the corner of the kitchen table and her 
ink on the teakettle, she managed to write a 
story, superintend the making of pastry, and 
watch the baby at the same time. 

One day Mrs. Stowe received a letter from 
a relative urging her to write something that 
would stir the country against the evil of 
slavery. She earnestly declared that she 
would. 

Soon thereafter the plot for her story, 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, flashed across her mind- 
She wrote a chapter as quickly as possible 
and sent it to the National Era, an antislav- 
ery paper. Chapter after chapter followed, 
written rapidly as the scenes of the story 



HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 169 

presented themselves to her. When it was 
completed it was published as a book. In a 
few days ten thousand copies were sold ; in a 
year, three hundred thousand copies. 

Mrs. Stowe wrote many other books, 
though none of them attained the prominence 
of Uncle Tom's Cabin. This book is consid- 
ered to have been one of the most influential 
and widely read novels in literature. 

From distinguished people all over the 
world came letters of congratulation to Mrs. 
Stowe. What she had written just because 
she felt that she must, with no thought of 
money or fame, brought her both. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe was further honored by being 
elected to the Hall of Fame in 1910. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe's gift of expres- 
sion, which she had been cultivating for 
many years under all sorts of difficulties, 
made it possible for her to draw a picture of 
slavery that aroused the whole world. 




Kate Douglas Wiggin— 

Who Put the Joy of Living 

Into Her Books 



ALTHOUGH Katie Smith loved all the 
books on the black walnut bookshelves, 
^the ones that she took down most often 
were some fat volumes by Charles Dickens. 
So much did she enjoy these stories that she 
named her yellow dog "Pip" after a char- 
acter in one of them ; and across her sled in 
big scarlet letters were painted the words 
"The Artful Dodger." 

One day Katie's mother read in the paper 
that Mr. Charles Dickens had come to Amer- 






KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 171 

ica. When Katie heard that he was going 
to give a reading from his books in Portland, 
Maine, only sixteen miles away, she was very 
much excited. How she longed to see and 
hear the wonderful man who had created so 
many delightful characters ! 

Katie and her mother had planned to go to 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, for a visit, stop- 
ping overnight in Portland, Now Katie's 
mother decided that they would leave home 
so as to be in Portland on the night of the 
reading. But alas! a grown-up cousin, in- 
stead of little Katie, was taken to hear Mr. 
Dickens. 

Katie bore her disappointment as best she 
could, and the next day after the reading she 
received her reward. Who should be riding 
on the very same train with Katie and her 
mother, but the great Charles Dickens him- 
self ! While Katie's mother was talking with 
an acquaintance, the little girl slipped into 
the empty seat beside her favorite author. 

"Where did you come from?" inquired 
Mr. Dickens in a surprised tone of voice. 



172 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

"I came from Hollis, Maine," stammered 
Katie Smith. 

Presently the little girl and the famous au- 
thor were chatting away like old friends. 
Mr. Dickens chuckled when he heard about 
the naming of Katie's dog and her sled, and 
his eyes grew moist when she spoke of the 
characters that made her cry. 

This nine-year-old admirer of Dickens had 
not the slightest idea that one day she would 
be an author herself. Years later, however, 
when she was known as Kate Douglas Wig- 
gin, she wrote a delightful story about an- 
other little State-of-Maine girl, entitled 
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She also 
wrote many other enjoyable books. 

Kate Douglas Smith was not a State-of- 
Maine girl by birth. She was born in Phila- 
delphia, September 28, 1859. When she was 
six years old her family moved to the village 
of Hollis, Maine. 

Little Katie Smith loved the world in 
which she lived and especially her own little 
corner of it on the banks of the Saco River. 



KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 173 

What fun she had with her little. sister Nora 
and her playmate Annie. Nora is better 
known to us as Nora Archibald Smith, the 
author of many charming stories for chil- 
dren. These little girls gathered velvety 
pussy willows, hunted for arbutus in the 
early spring, and picked wild strawberries 
and raspberries in the summer. 

How amusing Katie found the f roggery, a 
nice quiet pool where lived her favorite 
frogs ! She knew them all by name and twice 
a week she arranged them very gently in a 
row on a strip of board for a singing lesson. 
In the winter she enjoyed coasting and snow- 
balling. She also liked to be in the house 
where she could play with her orphanage of 
paper dolls and read her beloved books. 

To little Katie Smith, work was almost as 
amusing as play. It was fun, she thought, 
to cut up rhubarb for sauce, to make milk 
toast for supper, to water the plants, to iron 
the handkerchiefs, and to go for the milk. 
Just to be alive, to run along the river bank, 
to help about the house, was enough for this 



174 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

joyous child. No dreams of authorship had 
come to her, though she was filling her mind 
with the pictures which she was later to give 
to the world in her books. 

Katie Smith was taught at home and also 
attended a district school. Later she went 
to a boarding school in Maine, after which 
she attended Abbot Academy in Andover, 
Massachusetts, from which she was grad- 
uated. 

When Kate Smith was seventeen years old 
she followed her family to Santa Barbara, 
California, where they had gone several 
years before. As there was very little money 
in the family treasury, the elder daughter of 
the house felt that she must begin to help at 
once. A girl's story which she had written 
merely to amuse herself she decided to send 
to a magazine editor. What was Kate's de- 
light to receive in payment for the story a 
check for one hundred and fifty dollars, 
which came just in time to pay some taxes ! 

The proud young author, however, did not 
think of writing for a living. She decided 



KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 175 

that she did not yet know enough to write. 
She realized that she must live a little longer 
and learn more. In the meantime she decided 
to find some useful work to do. Years later, 
after she had become a successful author, 
she said that this decision was the most sen- 
sible act of her life. 

Kate Smith soon found the work that she 
sought. Kindergartens were still very new 
in America. Miss Smith studied the system 
and organized a free kindergarten in San 
Francisco, the first one to be established 
west of the Rockies. This young woman was 
very successful in bringing happiness into 
the lives of the little children who flocked to 
her kindergarten. 

It was for the purpose of raising money 
for kindergartens that the young teacher 
wrote two stories, The Story of Patsy, and 
The Birds' Christmas Carol. She had them 
printed and sold at twenty-five cents a copy. 
Miss Smith thought that the only reason they 
sold well was because so many friends were 
anxious to help the good cause of free kinder- 



176 



WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 



gartens. Little did she realize that these 
books would later bring her fame. 

In 1880 Kate Douglas Smith married Sam- 
uel Bradley Wiggin, who was a California 
lawyer. It was not until several years later 
that Mrs. Wiggin thought of sending a pa- 
per-covered copy of The Birds 9 Christmas 
Carol to a publisher. This charming story of 
the Ruggles family was accepted at once and 
more stories requested. From that time on 
Mrs. Wiggin devoted herself to writing. 

Girls and boys of to-day all over the world 
love her Rebecca, Carol, Patsy, and Timothy 
just as the little girl of Hollis, Maine, loved 
the children in Dickens' stories. Kate Doug- 
las Wiggin wrote often for children because 
she loved them and never forgot what it is 
like to be a child. She has also written many 
very entertaining books for older people. 

"Rebecca" is not, as some people have 
thought, small Katie Smith herself. How- 
ever, the district school where Rebecca wrote 
her famous composition was the one that the 
author attended. 



KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 177 

In Kate Douglas Wiggin's books are many 
pictures of the life that she lived as a child. 
She put herself into her books, but not as a 
character. In her stories you will find some- 
thing of her own quick wit, her cheerfulness, 
her satisfaction in doing and helping, and 
her joy of living. 




Frances E. Willard — 

The Girl Who Fought 

The Dragon, Drink 



FEANCES called her brother Oliver's 
attention to the new law that she had 
written the previous night for "Fort 
City." It read : "We will have no saloons or 
billiard halls, and then we will not need any 
jails." 

This little girl's favorite game was to plan 
a play city, a place where everyone could live 
happily. She took a special delight in mak- 
ing laws for the health and pleasure of the 
citizens of her city. 



FRANCES E. WILLARD 179 

Planning the city was only play, but in this 
game as well as in all others Frances Willard 
showed her remarkable ability as an organi- 
zer. Little did she realize that years later 
this ability would make her a valuable leader 
of the Temperance Cause. 

Frances Elizabeth Willard was born at 
Churchville, New York, September 28, 1839. 
When she was but a tiny child, her parents 
moved to Oberlin, Ohio, in order that they 
might study at the university. After a few 
years of happy student life, Mr. Willard was 
obliged to give up his books and his dream of 
becoming a minister for a life outdoors in the 
West. 

What an adventure the journey was for 
the three little Willards ! There were no fine 
Pullman trains in which they could travel, 
for there were no railroads in that section 
of the country in those days. Three clumsy 
prairie schooners carried them to their new 
home. Frances and her little sister Mary 
rode in the third, perched comfortably 
enough among the cushions on the top of 



180 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

their father's old-fashioned desk. For three 
weeks they traveled over the prairies, stop- 
ping only to cook their meals, gypsy-fashion, 
and to rest on Sundays. 

"Forest Home" was the name given to the 
pretty rustic cottage that Mr. Willard built 
among the oaks and hickory groves, by the 
banks of the Rock River, near Janesville, 
Wisconsin. It was a delightful place in which 
to spend a happy childhood. To be sure, the 
Willards' only callers at first were the chip- 
munks and birds, but there were no dull days. 
Every minute was filled. Frances did her 
share of the household tasks and far more 
than her share in planning the family games. 

Although the lively Frances was the lead- 
er in all the fun, there was one sport in which 
she was not allowed to join. This was horse- 
back riding. Confiding to her brother that 
she must ride something, she tried the cow. 
Her father laughed when he saw her on her 
clumsy steed, and allowed her to have a horse 
after that. This simple way of disposing of 
difficulties served her well all her life. 



FRANCES E. WILLARD 181 

Active and full of fun as Frances Willard 
was, she liked to be quiet and thoughtful too. 
A black oak in the garden bore the sign : 

The Eagle's Nest— Beware! 
High up in the leafy branches Frances would 
sit for hours, making up bits of verse or edit- 
ing the "Fort City" newspaper. 

On Sunday afternoons the children would 
wander with their mother in the orchard 
while she talked to them about the beauty 
that God had created. They realized that 
God was very near. 

Frances was quite young when she first 
heard from her parents of the unhappiness 
that drink brings. With the other children 
she signed a pledge written in the big family 
Bible, and ending: 

"So here we pledge perpetual hate 
To all that can intoxicate." 

For some years Mrs. Willard took charge 
of the children's lessons, but later a young 
woman from the East came to teach them 
and some of their little neighbors. No child 
was ever more hungry for knowledge than 



182 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

little Frances Willard. She often declared 
that she wanted to learn everything. 

There came a day when Frances was very 
happy and excited. A little schoolhouse had 
been built in the woods about a mile away. 
It was so small and brown and plain that she 
called it "a sort of big ground-nut," but it 
was a real schoolhouse, with a Yale graduate 
for a teacher. 

Later on Frances and Mary went away to 
college. They attended Milwaukee Female 
College, and then Northwestern Female Col- 
lege at Evanston, Illinois, from which they 
were graduated. At these two schools ener- 
getic, high-spirited Frances was a leader, 
both in and out of the classroom. 

Frances Willard was the same earnest, 
hungry-minded, determined girl when she 
became a teacher that she had been as a 
student. She began to teach in her own 
"brown-nut" schoolhouse during her first 
college vacation. After her graduation 
from college she spent a number of years 
in the teaching profession. During this time 



FRANCES E. WILLARD 183 

she was at the head of several important 
schools. She concluded her teaching career 
as Dean of the Woman's College in North- 
western University. 

About this time many people were becom- 
ing alarmed at the amount of drunkenness 
throughout the United States. They were 
distressed by the misery caused by drink. In 
the small towns in the Middle West, women 
often marched through the streets singing, 
praying, and begging saloon keepers to give 
up their business. 

In Chicago a band of women, marching to 
the City Council to ask to have the Sunday 
closing law enforced, were rudely treated by 
the mob. Frances Willard had never forgot- 
ten the pledge that she had signed in the 
family Bible. The insults to these women 
aroused her fighting spirit. She felt that she 
must help. 

One day the mail brought her two letters. 
One letter offered her the principalship of a 
prominent school in New York City, which 
would pay her a large salary. The other let- 



184 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

ter asked her to become president of the Chi- 
cago branch of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union. Because of the meager 
funds of this organization no salary was of- 
fered her. Although she had no means be- 
sides her earnings, Miss Willard chose the 
latter position. Later, discovering that she 
had no private income, this organization pro- 
vided a sufficient salary for her. 

Frances Willard felt sure that she should 
devote her life to the cause of Temperance. 
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
needed a leader badly, so with all the energy 
with which she had planned her play city, 
Miss Willard developed this organization. 

From that time on, Frances Willard gave 
her whole life to the Cause. She pleaded elo- 
quently for Temperance in every large city 
in the United States and in many small ones. 
She became the president of the National 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and 
later of the World's Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, which was organized 
through her efforts. 



FRANCES E. WILLARD 185 

In the National Capitol there is a hall 
where each state may place the statue of two 
of its most beloved leaders. Illinois erected 
there the first statue to a woman — a marble 
figure of Frances E. Willard. In the year 
1910 Frances E. Willard's name was selected 
for the Hall of Fame. 

To-day, we have that for which Miss Wil- 
lard dreamed and worked : a nation in which 
the sale of intoxicating drinks is prohibited 
by law. The passing of this milestone on the 
road to Temperance has greatly benefited 
the world. To Frances E. Willard, who con- 
tributed so much to the success of this move- 
ment, humanity is indebted. 







Ella Flagg Young — 

Whose Slogan Was 

'Better Schools for Girls and Boys" 



"W 



HAT does that mean, Ella?" The 
boy lifted his eyes from his weed- 
ing as he put the question to his 
sister. Ella, seated on a chair between the 
garden rows, rested her open book on her 
knees a moment and sat thinking. Then, 
choosing her words carefully, she explained 
what she had just read aloud. 

"Oh, I see now," the boy exclaimed. "Go 



on. 



Ella resumed the reading. 



ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 187 

Ella Flagg was in poor health as a little 
girl, so her mother chose gardening as the 
best means of keeping her outdoors. Ella 
found that while her fingers were busy pull- 
ing weeds, down one long row and up an- 
other, her active little mind was eager to be 
busy too. 

She and her brother decided to combine 
reading and gardening. The plan worked 
well for these two children, as it relieved 
the weeding hours of monotony. Ella then 
made the discovery that whatever she tried 
to explain she must first understand very 
clearly herself. It was in this way that Ella 
.Flagg Young, who became a famous educa- 
tor, did her first teaching. 

For the first thirteen years of her life Ella 
Flagg lived in Buffalo, New York, where she 
was born January 15, 1845. On account of 
ill health she was not allowed to go to school 
with her sister and brother. Her mother 
and father believed that there would be 
plenty of time for regular lessons when her 
body had grown stronger. 



188 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

She was eight or nine years of age before 
she learned to read and then she taught her- 
self. One morning Ella's mother was read- 
ing in a newspaper an account of a fire. Ella 
was so much interested that she took the pa- 
per and tried to read the article. She re- 
membered the exact beginning, but she did 
not know any of the other words. With 
some help, however, she was finally able to 
read the entire article. 

Even though this little girl did not have 
regular lessons, there was much to be learned 
in a home such as hers. Mrs. Flagg was an 
energetic, capable woman. She was skillful 
in managing household affairs and much in 
demand among her friends and neighbors, 
when there was sickness or trouble in their 
homes. 

From her mother, Ella learned how to set- 
tle household problems for herself. Because 
of this training she was able always to look 
squarely in the face the big problems that 
confronted her, when she was at the head of 
the Chicago school system. 



ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 189 

Little Ella could learn a great deal, too, 
merely from hearing her mother and father 
talk, for they were thoughful, intelligent 
people. Mr. Flagg had had to leave school 
when he was only ten years old to be appren- 
ticed to the sheet-metal trade. However, by 
reading and study he had educated himself. 

Sometimes Ella used to go to her father's 
shop and sit for hours watching him at work 
at his forge. She asked questions about all 
the processes that he followed so that she 
really understood what he was doing. From 
these pleasant hours in the shop came her 
love of handwork and her interest in having 
it taught in the public schools. 

When Ella began to go to school her fa- 
ther took a great interest in the way in which 
she studied. He had always done his own 
thinking and he did not want his daughter to 
depend on other people for hers. 

Once Ella discussed with her father a 
drawing in her textbook of an hydraulic 
press that she was studying, She realized 
that he was displeased with what she said so 



190 



WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 



she immediately decided to study the draw- 
ing more thoroughly. Soon she discovered 
that an important part had been left out. In 
the examination on the press the next day 
the papers of all the other students, who had 
blindly followed the book, were marked zero, 
while Ella's received a perfect mark. 

Ella Flagg graduated from a Chicago high 
school and also from the Chicago Normal 
School. This ambitious girl began to teach 
when she was seventeen years of age. She 
first taught in a primary grade for six weeks 
and then in a higher grade where some of 
the pupils were larger and older than she. 
In a year she was made head assistant of the 
school and in two years principal of the prac- 
tice school, where she helped to train the 
normal-school students. 

Ella Flagg married William Young in 1868.. 
However, she did not give up her work. She 
climbed steadily up the ladder of the teach- 
ing profession. Even though she had be- 
come very successful she felt that she needed 
more education. Consequently she studied 



ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 191 

at the University of Chicago from which she 
received the degree of Ph. D. 

Mrs. Young became assistant superintend- 
ent of the Chicago schools, then professor of 
education in the University of Chicago. 
Later she was made principal of the Chicago 
Normal School, and finally superintendent 
of schools in Chicago. 

As soon as Mrs. Young became superin- 
tendent of the Chicago schools she began to 
work for the children. She ordered the win- 
dows to be opened, top and bottom, in the 
schoolrooms to do away with the foul air 
produced by a poor system of ventilation. 
She organized fresh-air classes for pupils 
who needed an extra amount of oxygen. 

She asked the teachers to help her improve 
the course of study. Handwork, in which 
the hours at her father's shop had given her 
an interest, she introduced into every grade. 
A new study, which she called "Chicago," 
brought the children into closer relation with 
their own city, teaching them its geography, 
history, and government. 



192 WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS 

The fame of Mrs. Young's work in educa- 
tion spread beyond her own city. The Na- 
tional Education Association, which had 
never had a woman in office, made her its 
president. Mrs. Young wrote many books 
about education. 

When Mrs. Young was asked how she 
managed to accomplish so much, she always 
said that it was through systematic work. 
The first year that she began to teach, she 
planned to devote three evenings a week to 
study, three to seeing her friends, and Sun- 
day evening to church. 

For a long lifetime Ella Flagg Young 
worked to solve the problem of educating the 
girls and boys of Chicago and the nation. 
The clear and independent thinking that she 
had cultivated as a girl helped to give her a 
place as one of the great educators of our 
day. 



